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Originally an American construct, Black Friday was ideal for retailers and consumers in the United States to kick off the busy Christmas shopping period. In Ireland, where Christmas retail campaigns now begin just after Halloween, adopting Black Friday as an aid to sales seemed the obvious thing to do and it is now a fixture…

The number of first time buyers being approved for a mortgage has dropped to its lowest level since 2019, new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland show. The latest BPFI figures also reveal that the number of people switching mortgages continued to rise in October. Last month, a total of 5,349 mortgages were approved.…

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has said the Government’s budgetary strategy struck the “appropriate balance between protecting vulnerable households and avoiding inflation”. In its Fiscal Assessment Report published today, the budgetary watchdog also warns that if the Government wants to keep within its own spending rule in next year’s Budget, it will either have to…

Total tax revenue collected by the Exchequer in 2021 was €93.3 billion, according to the Central Statistics Office. This was €15.9 billion more or 21% higher than in 2020. Today’s figures are contained in a new CSO publication, which is different to the figures published monthly by the Department of Finance. It includes a wider…

The Government will host a major conference in Dublin focusing on Ireland’s technology sector. The Digital Ireland Conference will hear from speakers including the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Government ministers as well as executives from tech companies such as Meta, Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The one-day event will explore how Ireland can maximise its digital track…

Wholesale electricity prices fell sharply last month and are back to levels not seen since August of last year, according to the latest Wholesale Price Index from the Central Statistics Office. The price of electricity charged to industrial users fell by 52% in October. This comes after a drop of 27% in electricity prices in…

IDA Ireland is expected to tell the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment that it has sight of a healthy pipeline of investments for the first half of next year but that it will be slightly weaker than this year. The agency is due to appear before the committee, along with Technology Ireland, to…

The ESB is increasing charges for the use of its public electric vehicle charging points by up to 52%. The changes will take place from December 20th. It is the second time this year that the company has increased the charges. In a notification sent to customers, the company said it understands that the price…

The number of new housing starts continued to slow last month, according to new figures from the Department of Housing. Commencement notices show 1,841 units began construction in October. That is down on the 2,211 figure for September and down 31% on October last year. The rolling 12-month commencement figure is now 26,608, which is…

The Government is expected to agree to cap the revenues of electricity generating companies which do not use gas. The Cabinet is also set to sign off on a plan to get firms producing fossil fuels to pay a solidarity contribution. After months of consideration, the Government will today finalise plans to tackle windfall gains…