Archive for May 2020

European countries need to join forces to shield their banks from the coronavirus outbreak, one of the bloc’s top regulators said today, potentially using a 500 billion euro EU recovery fund to do so. The remarks from Jose Manuel Campa, who leads the European Banking Authority (EBA), will rekindle a divisive debate about whether rich…

The number of people receiving the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment has fallen to 579,400 – a drop of 5,200 over the last week.  Of these, 33,400 are receiving their last payment as they are returning to work.   These figures are on top of the 214,700 people receiving Jobseekers’ Benefit at the end of April. …

Three quarters of consumers say they now use contactless payments at least once a week, according to a survey for the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland. The survey of 1,000 adults was conducted at the end of April by Coyne Research.  It coincided with the extension of the limit on contactless payments from €30 to…

The National Treasury Management Agency today held an auction of Irish Treasury Bills and sold the target amount of €750m.     The NTMA said that total bids received amounted to €3.71 billion which was nearly five times the amount on offer.  The Treasury Bills, which have a maturity of five months, were sold at…

The Central Statistics Office’s latest Labour Force Survey shows that a total of 2,353,500 people were employed in the first quarter of 2020. This gives an associated employment rate of 69.8% for those aged between 15 and 64 years, the CSO added. But when the effects of the coronavirus are taken into account, the Covid-19 Adjusted…

The European Commission is recommending that Ireland takes all necessary measures to effectively address the Covid-19 pandemic, sustain the economy and support the recovery that follows. It also says the tax base here should be broadened over this year and next. “The challenges facing Ireland in regard to poverty and employment quality and support, including…

Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said that there is a possibility that Ireland will run a deficit of €30 billion this year. “We expect public debt to increase significantly this year,” the Minister said. Speaking in the Dáil, Paschal Donohoe said the deficit can be financed at low interest rates at the moment but he said sentiment…

The number of people receiving the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment has fallen slightly by 5,000 to 584,600 over the last week, new figures show.  Of those, 7,000 are receiving the €350 weekly payment for the first time.   A further 214,700 people were receiving Jobseekers’ Benefit of €203 a week at the end of April. …

The Central Statistics Office has found that a majority of companies have continued to trade through the Covid-19 pandemic.   In the second of the CSO’s new Covid-19 business surveys, conducted in the week beginning May 3, 76% of companies which responded said they were continuing to trade.  But 23.9% indicated they had ceased trading…

The Labour Court is to convene virtual case hearings for the first time from 2 June in order to comply with public health guidelines on the coronavirus. The majority of currently scheduled hearings involve industrial relations matters and will be heard in private. However, in a statement, the Labour Court says it is satisfied that…