Archive for August 2025

The Restaurants Association of Ireland, supported by economic research from economist Tony Foley, today launched a significant report making the case for the restoration of the 9% VAT rate for food services and addressing recent criticisms of the policy measure. The Restaurants Association of Ireland said it rejects some recent commentary and claims questioning the…

No matter what way you look at it, residential electricity prices in Ireland are expensive. When comparing electricity prices across European countries, we can look at direct ‘euro’ price, or we can adjust prices to account for differences in living standards and wages. Either way, Ireland is well above the European average. The reason electricity…

Most hospitality establishments in Northern Ireland are operating at under 80% of capacity due to rising costs, a survey has found. It found that hospitality businesses have had to dramatically cut their workforce, with 87% of respondents operating below 90% of required capacity, with the majority (55%) operating below 80% capacity. It also found that…

Goods exports fell in June, but this does not imply any slowdown in real economic activity, according to new analysis from Davy Stockbrokers. Last week’s figures from the Central Statistics Office show that on a monthly basis, the value of exports fell sharply in June, down 26.3% from May as exports to the US slowed…

Google agreed today to pay a $55m fine in Australia after the consumer watchdog found it had hurt competition by paying the country’s two largest telcos to pre-install its search application on Android phones, excluding rival search engines. The fine extends a bumpy period for the Alphabet-owned internet giant in Australia, where last week a…

Laya Healthcare is to increase the prices of its health insurance polices by an average of 4.5% from the start of October. The provider, which has more than 700,000 customers, is also retiring ten of its existing policies. Customers will be informed of any changes affecting them when renewing their policies. Any price increases will…

The Department of Foreign Affairs has been hit with a hike of more than €46,000 on the annual rent it pays for the Irish ambassador’s residence in London. The department said it had little choice but to agree to the sharp increase even though it brought the cost of the property close to €10,000 per…

Shein has been hit with its second fine from European regulators in as many months – with both including accusations of greenwashing. The Chinese fast fashion retailer was accused by Italian authorities of making “misleading or omissive” environmental claims about its products, which centred on what were seen as vague, misleading and often confusing information…

The CEOs of major corporations earn seemingly absurd sums. The Wall Street Journal’s list of the top 10 highest-paid CEOs listed annual pay packages of $60 to $164 million, but these figures sometimes grossly underestimate the value of their total compensation. For example, Elon Musk, who is not even on the Wall Street Journal list,…

The Trump administration is in talks with Intel to have the US government potentially take a stake in the struggling chipmaker, Bloomberg News reported today, citing people familiar with the plan. Such a move would mark another intervention by US President Donald Trump in industries seen as vital to national security. Trump has pushed for…