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The Chair of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council has said that politicians need to explain how they would afford to build 40,000 houses a year and retain the €4 billion that was put into the health during the pandemic. Sebastian Barnes said the money would have to come from increased taxation or through finding savings…

With almost two thirds of those under the age of 25 who are not in education unemployed, the National Youth Council of Ireland is warning that the pandemic could have a ‘scarring effect’ on the career and employment prospects of young people. The Covid adjusted youth unemployment rate stands at 61.8%, with many young people…

New figures from the Central Bank show that the number of homeowners in mortgage arrears for more than 90 days fell to 5.2% at the end of March, from 5.3% three months earlier. The number of home mortgage accounts in arrears fell by 2,838 in the first three months of the year, mainly as a…

Sinn Féin is seeking to amend a new piece of legislation it has proposed that aims to cap the interest rate charged by moneylenders. Currently, moneylenders can charge interest of up to 187% or 288% when collection charges are taken account of. The Consumer Credit Bill, proposed by Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman, Pearse Doherty, had…

Ireland is set to receive the biggest share of the €5 billion EU Brexit fund, after a provisional agreement was reached today. Ireland will get over €1 billion of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR), which is aimed at countries and sectors worst hit by the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. The Netherlands, France, Germany and…

The price of residential property increased by 4.5% in April, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office. This compares to an increase of 3.5% in March and an increase of 0.7% in the 12 months to April last year. Prices were slower to rise in Dublin, with an increase of 3.5%, while…

Small and medium Irish employers are warning that the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) is acting as “a significant brake” on returning workers in certain sectors of the economy and should be “tapered” faster than currently planned. Neil McDonnell, the CEO of Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (ISME), told an Oireachtas Committee that this is affecting…

The food service market here will not return to the levels it was at prior to the Covid-19 pandemic until the end of next year, according to Bord Bia. The Irish food promotion board says that the prolonged lockdown in the first half of this year and gradual reopening has meant the recovery has been…

The number of people receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment has fallen to just over 267,000 – a decrease of almost 18,000 over the last seven days. The drop in claims reflects the continued reopening of the economy, with 24,000 people closing their PUP accounts last week to return to work. Including this week’s payments of…

A dilemma is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives. It is precisely what is facing a vast cohort of tenants and would be home-owners here all over Ireland. House prices and rents have both already started to rise and as the nation recovers from lockdown…