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One criticism made of governments and civil servants in the past is that they did not plan sufficiently for the future. The State-appointed Commission on Taxation recommended in 2021 that officials carry out a long-term analysis of what the decades ahead might hold. That deep dive into the next 40 years was published yesterday. The…

The average cost of rebuilding a home has risen by 7% nationally in the past year, according to the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland. That is a slightly faster pace of price growth than was seen in 2024, but is slower than the 12% increase recorded in 2023. Rebuild costs have also risen at a…

From ChatGPT crafting emails, to AI systems recommending TV shows and even helping diagnose disease, the presence of machine intelligence in everyday life is no longer science fiction. Yet, for all the promises of speed, accuracy and optimisation, there’s a lingering discomfort. Some people love using AI tools. Others feel anxious, suspicious, even betrayed by…

23,085 new electric cars have been sold so far this year, up almost 40% on the same period last year. When all engine types are included, 123,858 new cars were sold in the fist ten months of the year, up 3.4% on 2024. The figures from the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) show…

The Criminal Assets Bureau sold 20 properties which were found to be the proceeds of crime last year, the highest number sold in any one year. One of the properties, the former Dublin home of the leader of the Kinahan Organised Group, Daniel Kinahan, sold for over €930,000. The four-bedroom, three-bathroom detached house on a…

Analysis: Until switching banks is as easy as switching mobile network, most of us will stay in the same financial relationship we began in college In 2012, UK shadow chancellor Ed Balls declared that “you’re more likely to be divorced than to change your bank account.” Channel 4 later fact-checked the claim and found that…

Berkshire Hathaway signaled over the weekend that it remained cautious about markets, letting cash swell to a record $381.7 billion even as profit rose, in its last financial report before Warren Buffett bows out as chief executive. For a 12th quarter in a row, Buffett’s conglomerate sold more stocks than it bought for its $283.2…

The former governor of the Central Bank, Patrick Honohan, has said the organisation was probably too trusting of the banks when it was dealing with the tracker mortgage scandal. Mr Honohan was commenting on the long-running saga, which saw tens of thousands of homeowners wrongly moved to higher interest loans by the banks. These mortgage…

New Central Bank figures show that in excess of 42,000 mortgage accounts have now been identified as having been impacted by the tracker mortgage scandal – but more than a decade on serious questions remain about accountability and transparency, writes John Downes, director of a new two part RTÉ documentary series TRACKERS: The People V…

The average price of motor insurance rose 9% between 2023 and 2024 to reach €623, according to the Central Bank. It said that the average expected cost of claims per policy increased 3% to €397, the highest it has been since 2014. The rising costs have been criticised by the Alliance for Insurance Reform which…