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Popular internet services, from streaming platforms to messaging services to banking, were offline for hours toda due to an outage in Amazon’s crucial cloud network, spotlighting how dependent internet life has become on the tech titan. A huge spike in disruption logged at Downdetector early Monday was followed by an even bigger jump some nine…

A non-profit body that provides loan finance for community organisations has reached a lending milestone of more than €260 million. Since it was established in 2007, the Social Finance Foundation (SFF) has provided loans to 2,200 projects across the country. The average loan value to each of the organisations was €119,000. The funding is provided…

China’s economic growth slowed to the weakest pace in a year in the third quarter as fragile domestic demand left it heavily reliant on manufacturing production and exports, stoking concerns about deepening structural imbalances. The economy’s overreliance on exports at a time of mounting trade tensions with Washington is also raising questions over whether Beijing…

Bank of Ireland has more than doubled to £350m (€400m) the amount it had set aside to compensate customers for a motor finance mis-selling scandal in the UK. This follows the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’s consultation paper published on October 7 on the industry-wide commission arrangement between car dealers and lenders – which led to…

Could the digital euro be a reality within four years? There is certainly momentum building, even if consumers remain sceptical. The motivation reflects the growing digitalisation of payments, but also a deeper concern about European dependence on US giants Visa and Mastercard given the unpredictability – not to say economic hostility – of the Trump…

Gold hit a record high for the fourth straight session today, as investors flocked to the safe-haven metal on brewing US-China trade tensions and the US government shutdown, with bets on interest rate cuts fuelling the momentum. Spot gold was up 1.4% at $4,264.63 per ounce as of 1506 GMT after bullion touched a record…

The Minister for Finance has published the Finance Bill which implements the tax changes announced on Budget Day, as well as introducing some administrative and technical changes to the tax code. The 142 page document provides for amendments relating to the rate of VAT applying to the hospitality and hairdressing sectors, the Automatic Enrolment Retirement…

There was a 40% rise in the volume of fraudulent payments last year compared to 2023, according to the Central Bank’s Payment Fraud Statistics for 2024. The figures show the total value of fraudulent payments in Ireland increased to €160 million in 2024 – up nearly 25% from the previous year. The growth is predominantly…

Official data may be understating the amount of corporation tax paid by the manufacturing and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors, according to the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council. Figures from the Revenue Commissioners show that around 70% of Ireland’s corporation tax revenues have come from just three broad sectors – manufacturing, ICT and financial and…

Over a third of Irish people failed to make full use of their holiday entitlements last year, according to new research. It represents an overall improvement on the same study last year which found 42% of workers had failed to use all their annual leave. The findings are based on a survey of almost 2,000…