EVERY WEEKEND, TheJournal.ie gives its readers the chance to put their feet up and take a look back at all the goings-on from the world of business.
Once again it’s time to delve deep inside The Briefcase for the important – and sometimes less-important – financial news that has come out this working week:
The government finally did a deal on Aer Lingus. After four months of circling one another, airline group IAG and the Irish state struck a deal for the government to hand over its €335 million piece of the national carrier. That was despite a one-man parliamentary protest and fears for hundreds of jobs, with the future of the sale now resting in the hands of Ryanair
Patrick Neary is sorry – especially about those golf balls. The former head of the Financial Regulator took his turn before the banking inquiry, where he alternated between offering apologies and blaming others – the Central Bank, the Finance Department, the banks themselves – for the catastrophic financial collapse that happened on his watch. But that still left the curious case of those branded golf balls…
Some workers are really winning as the economy picks up. The latest earnings figures showed the average pay in some sectors like IT and communications has been shooting ahead, while other industries were worse off than in the depths of the recession. Meanwhile, public sector pay talks rumbled on, with the latest deal on the table some €1,000 per worker for each of the next two years
Former ghost town Cherrywood is getting a New York makeover. Developer Hines revealed more details of its plans for the 400-acre site, where work to build nearly 3,800 homes stalled after the property crash. The proposal includes an elevated pedestrian plaza modelled on the Big Apple’s High Line
Tesco will axe Christmas bonuses for thousands of staff this year. The move will affect workers who joined the company over the last decade, although those on older contracts will still get the annual payment. Meanwhile, new company CEO Dave Lewis received about €5.7 million for his first six months with the grocery giant
Australia’s richest woman will hand over up to €3.5 billion to her daughter. It followed a long and bitter court battle between mining magnate Gina Rinehart and three of her four children, who wanted to get their hands on a lucrative family trust. The court ruling means control of that estate will now go to her oldest daughter
Brits and Americans are queuing up to get into Ireland. Maybe not literally – unless baggage collections are backed up – but the number of tourists arriving from the two major markets has gone through the roof so far this year. Trips from the US have been up over 20% when compared to the same time in 2014
Irish shoppers should soon get a lot more rights. The government wants to ban expiry dates on gift cards and introduce a mandatory 30-day refund period on faulty goods alongside other measures
Among all the chatter of regulation failures, reckless lending and guarantees at the banking inquiry, we couldn’t resist returning to Patrick Neary and, as Labour senator Susan O’Keeffe labelled them, “the famous golf balls”.
The golfing theme was continued later in the session when Neary volunteered to Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty that in his early days at the regulator he was also in a “golfing society” with a few of the bankers he was engaged in regulating.
Here are a few of the highlights:
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