The Irish Times

Increased activity in the Republic’s manufacturing and pharmaceutical sectors last year drove an increase of more than 15 per cent in revenues at the Irish arm of engineering and construction giant Jacobs.

A new one-stop shop to help businesses access government supports and information will save small and medium enterprises (SMEs) time and effort, and support the development of indigenous companies, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke has said.

Barbie, the Margot Robbie co-produced movie, the box office hit of the year, generating €9.9 million last year in Ireland. It was the highlight of a buoyant year for Irish cinemas, as box-office income increased by 10 per cent to €101 million, according to the annual report of the Irish Film Classification Office.

The proportion of Irish home buyers opting for fixed-rate mortgage contracts has fallen, possibly in anticipation of further interest rate cuts.

A High Court judge will give a decision next week in a widow’s injunction application against developer Greg Kavanagh and his company Beakonford Ltd over alleged trespass on the woman’s property in Ashford, Co Wicklow.

Plans for more housing at the former Irish Glass Bottle site at Poolbeg in Dublin have received a boost. Dublin City Council has granted planning permission to a Johnny Ronan RGRE led consortium, Pembroke Beach DAC to construct 502 apartments across five separate apartment blocks ranging in height from six to seven storeys for the former Irish Glass Bottle site.

Cliff Taylor: The income tax package looks likely to be fairly straightforward. Much of this, as new Minister for Finance Jack Chambers said, will be to take account of inflation and ensure that as people’s wages go up, they do not end up paying a higher proportion in tax.

🎙️ Inside Business podcast: On this week’s episode of Inside Business, Eoin Burke-Kennedy and Cliff Taylor join presenter Ciarán Hancock to go through the headline numbers in the statement and how the €8.3 billion breaks down.

Adjusted earnings surged at budget travel group Hostelworld in the first half of the year, the company said on Wednesday in a trading update.

I’m the head of a department and one employee, whose contract states 9-5pm as their agreed hours of work, seems to have gradually adopted a year-round flexi-time arrangement. We tried to show some flexibility in the interest of remaining a preferred employer. This employee also runs their own business, often taking several calls each day while at work. They are often late, and I rarely know what time they will arrive. The rest of the department is having to pick up the slack. How can we raise the issue that the agreed working hours in their contract is what is expected rather than the current arrangement and does custom and practice an issue?