Practice News

There is a “huge opportunity” for Ireland to be at the leading edge of the emerging cyber-security industry, Tánaiste and Enterprise Minister Frances Fitzgerald told delegates at a leading industry conference in Dublin yesterday. The cyber-security industry employs around 6,000 people here, and the top five worldwide security software companies have operations in Ireland, Minister […]

Sterling has jumped to a four- and-a-half month high against the euro amid stronger manufacturing data out of the UK. It comes ahead of a much anticipated Bank of England meeting today in which governor Mark Carney is expected to announce the bank’s first interest rate rise in a decade. The pound hovered above the […]

Working from an island, as exporters do in Ireland, forces us to be more competitive than companies in markets we sell to. Products and services that businesses develop here must offer customers more value than those of competitors. Irish exporters can’t just be good, they must be better. Last month, a milestone in achieving that […]

Eurozone economic sentiment rose in October for the fifth consecutive month to reach its highest level since the start of 2001, showing almost no impact from the Catalan crisis, according to European Commission data. The near 17-year high is the highest reading since January 2001 when the bursting of the dot-com bubble had begun to […]

he value of any currency can, and does, fluctuate over time due to the many economic, fiscal or political vagaries that face any economy, and in turn their domestic currency. The outcome of certain ‘risk events’ can have a material impact on the value of currencies, dependent on the outcome of said events. The aftershocks […]

More than half of Irish businesses expect a cyber attack on their operations by the end of 2017 while 36pc have already experienced one this year, according to the results of a new survey. And significantly, 84pc of businesses see potential attacks as a major threat to their operations, according to the Dublin Information Sec […]

How to deal with the Border issue post-Brexit looks increasingly intractable. Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has argued we are on the cusp of agreement on maintaining the Common Travel Area, which will ensure the free movement of people north and south. But maintaining current levels of cross border cooperation and integration, and ensuring the tariff-free […]

With so many seemingly attractive offers out there to lure first time buyers it can be hard to navigate the mortgage market. We spoke to Áine Carroll, Director of Communications and Marketing Insights of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) about how first-time buyers can cut through the noise in the mortgage market and […]

Eurozone countries remain vulnerable to another crisis because they don’t have the fiscal space to absorb future shocks, the outgoing head of the Eurogroup has warned. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads up the group of finance ministers from the 19 euro area countries, said the bloc’s capacity to deal with future shocks is “very thin”. “You […]

The cost of building a two-bedroom apartment is way in excess of the selling price, meaning few developments are likely to go ahead unless the Government tackles Vat, levies and other costs, a new report claims. The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (CSI) says it is cheaper to build a three-bedroom semi-detached house than an […]