A round-up of today's other business stories in brief...
€3.2bn for agriculture over next year
MORE THAN €3.2 billion will be going into agriculture in the coming year despite the very difficult choices which had to be made in the sector, Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said.
Defending the Budget, Mr Smith said that his department would be down only 2.6 per cent next year.
Farm organisations, however, criticised the Budget. Irish Farmers' Association president Padraig Walshe claimed farmers would face a shortfall of €400 million.
Incentive to move sites is welcomed
Business leaders in Cork have welcomed the Budget's provision for a new tax incentive scheme to facilitate the removal and relocation of "Seveso" industrial sites.
The EU's Seveso directive places restrictions on new residential and commercial development near locations where potentially dangerous activities are undertaken.
Missed opportunity to drive growth
The Budget was a missed opportunity to drive the growth of smaller companies through the failure to increase the amount they can raise through the Business Expansions Scheme (BES), the Irish Software Association claimed.
It said small and medium enterprises were having "extreme difficulty" accessing funding.