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The Department of Social Protection has advised employers facing difficulties in re-hiring staff to contact it so that it can “follow up” with the workers concerned. The advice comes as the latest Department figures reveal that the number of people claiming the Pandemic Unemployment Payment this week has dropped to 376,600. This marked a decrease…

Minister of State for Trade Robert Troy has said a more cost-effective and faster administrative process will be put in place before the summer to enable “viable, vulnerable” businesses to restructure. He said the Small Company Administrative Rescue Process and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill targets small and micro business. They make up 90% of companies registered…

12,000 businesses are expected to reopen their premises this week as Covid-19 restrictions ease further starting from today. Non-essential retailers across the country can resume click and collect, shopping by appointment and outdoor services from this morning. While personal services, such as hairdressers, barbers and beauticians can also open after more than five months closed.…

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said that today is “a day of freedom” as society partially re-opens and people can travel freely anywhere on the island of Ireland. Mr Varadkar said that 12,000 businesses are set to re-open this week and 100,000 people will go back to work. He said that existing financial supports for business will…

A survey by the Central Bank and the ESRI has found the impact of Covid-19 on small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) has been “profound”. The survey reveals that almost a quarter of SMEs could be vulnerable to liquidation when insolvency criteria begin to normalise. The survey, carried out between July and September last year,…

Land prices remained resilient last year despite the threat posed by Covid-19, according to a report by the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and Teagasc. Nationally, the price for non-residential land ranged from an average of €5,900 per acre for poor quality land to €9,381 for good quality land. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland…

The Minister for Finance has said that scaling up the vaccine programme is key to the re-opening of the economy and that is happening now with 170,000 vaccines planned for this week. Paschal Donohoe said that re-openings in March and April happened and in the coming weeks and months the delivery of vaccine targets will…

Ulster Bank, Bank of Scotland Ireland, Rabobank, Danske Bank, and more. There have been plenty of lenders who have dipped their toes in the Irish banking sector, only to discover in recent years that the temperature of the water is not to their liking, and disappear. And now it seems one more may be about…

Brexit trigged a major reduction in cargo volumes at Dublin Port in the first quarter of this year, while Covid-19 also hit passenger numbers. The Dublin Port Company said today that its trade volumes fell by 15.2% in the first three months of 2021. The main driver was a decline in freight from British ports,…

A report on pensions has found that fees and charges are so high that over time they are wiping out the tax relief given to pension savers by the State. The findings have led the Labour Party to draw up legislation that would force pension providers to be more transparent about charges. Labour finance spokesman…