Posts by sean

A total of 635 million plastic bottles and aluminum cans have been returned to the Deposit Return Scheme so far. That is according to new data from the Department of Environment, Climate, and Communications. This equates to €110 million in deposits returned to customers. The collection rate for August was equivalent to 73% of all…

Consumers are being warned of a new ‘direct debit’ scam which is falsely leading people to believe their bank account has been hacked. FraudSMART, the fraud awareness initiative led by Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), said the scammers are persuading people to move their money to a so-called ‘safe account’ in order to protect…

Just 10% of human resources professionals say that their organisation has a 100% level of compliance with on-site or hybrid attendance policies, new research has established. But the study also found that almost half of respondents reported a compliance level of at least 50%. The HR Update report, published by Ibec to coincide with its…

European Central Bank policymakers have begun to debate whether interest rates need to be lowered enough to start stimulating the economy, ending years of economic restriction, conversations this week with half a dozen sources indicate. The ECB has been cutting rates quickly this year but policymakers have so far said the goal is a neutral…

Progress on cutting Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions continued during the first three months of the year with an overall reduction of 2.2% in emissions compared with the same three-month-period in 2023, according to a new quarterly emissions report from the Environmental Protection Agency. The first ever quarterly emissions data from the EPA shows electricity imports…

A new survey from the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland reveals that access to skilled staff, high energy and transport costs as well as access to finance are the biggest risks identified by Irish SMEs. The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland is the State’s promotional financial institution and it has channelled over €4 billion in…

The State is transferring the first in a series of annual payments into a fund set up to invest windfall gains from taxing multinationals. Four billion euro is being moved from the Exchequer to the Future Ireland Fund. The fund is one of two vehicles set up to save some of the proceeds from corporation…

Euro zone firms have recorded a further slowdown in business momentum but overall economic growth is likely to remain positive as expansion in services offsets a manufacturing recession, a European Central Bank quarterly survey of firms showed. The euro zone economy is barely growing as Germany, its biggest economy, could be in recession and the…

Petrol and diesel prices have decreased for the third month in a row, the latest AA Ireland fuel survey shows. Petrol dropped by two cents to €1.72 per litre in October, while diesel prices also dropped by a cent to an average of €1.66 per litre. AA noted that crude oil prices are fluctuating daily…

Media regulator Coimisiún na Meán will formally launch Ireland’s Online Safety Code following the conclusion of an assessment by the European Commission. The rules will apply to video-sharing platforms that have their EU headquarters in Ireland. The code will be legally binding, and companies will face fines of up to €20 million for breaches of…