Archive for August 2021

An alcohol price survey by Alcohol Action Ireland confirms “the exceptional affordability of alcohol to every day shoppers” and reaffirms the necessity for the commencement of minimum pricing of alcohol products, due to come into effect in January next year. Alcohol Action Ireland is an independent advocate for reducing alcohol harm. Its price survey found…

The total value of imports from Northern Ireland into the Republic jumped by more than three quarters in the first six months since Brexit compared to the same period last year, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Goods worth €1.77bn were brought into the country from the north between January and…

More than 100 Covid outbreaks are occurring each week, most of which are happening at social gatherings and in workplaces, the National Lead for Testing and Tracing at the HSE has said. Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher Hayes, Niamh O’Beirne said there are an increasing number of outbreaks in these settings with people…

Ireland’s electricity grid is facing an increased prospect of blackouts this winter as emergency plans to import power generators have stalled, a professor of energy engineering at University College Cork has said. EirGrid, which operates Ireland’s electricity grid, has said “maintaining the balance between supply and demand has become increasingly challenging” due to a number…

Borrowing costs in Germany, the euro zone’s benchmark bond issuer, dipped on Monday to their lowest level in over a week as latest data from the world’s biggest economies cast a shadow over the growth outlook. The Taliban’s seizure of power in Afghanistan also supported bond markets, seen as a safe haven at times of…

At the onset of the pandemic last year, the property market went into hibernation and there were forecasts of prices falling, possibly by up to 12%. How wrong that assumption turned out to be. Figures published by the Central Statistics Office this week showed that property prices continued their ascent in June. Transaction prices were…

Residential property prices rose again in June, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. The price of houses and apartments nationally rose by 6.9% in the year to June, compared to 5.4% in May. There was no change in prices in the year to June 2020. In Dublin, residential property rose by…

Consumer prices in July were 2.2% higher than they were in the same month last year, according to the Central Statistics Office. It is the first time in many years that the rate of price increases here has breached the 2% threshold that Central Banks aim to keep inflation below. The last time inflation was…

Close to 50,000 housing units would have to be built here every year for the coming decades in order to keep up with demand. That’s according to a report on the housing stock carried out for the property industry group, Irish Institutional Property (IIP). It contains an analysis by Trinity College Professor, Ronan Lyons, which…

2.4 million contactless payments were made every day in June of this year, the highest daily figure on record. New data from the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland shows that 73 million contactless payments were made in June, to the value of more than €1.2 billion. This means that June saw the largest daily figure…