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Irish remortgaging and mortgage switching activity slumped almost 65 per cent year-on-year in April, following heightened activity in this area of the market for much of last year as borrowers piled into fix-rate products amid rising central bank rates. Joe Brennan has the details.
Sharp cliff edges in the PRSI and USC systems in Ireland may be acting as a disincentive to work, a new study has suggested. The research by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) highlighted that individuals with incomes below a certain level (€352 a week for PRSI and €13,000 a year for the USC) were currently exempt from these charges. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.
A busy technology policy week in the European Union has foregrounded the contrasted lawmaking and regulatory thinking of the EU and the US on new technologies, and signalled trouble ahead – for the US, writes Karlin Lillington in her weekly column.
A programme of courses aimed at helping to address the acute shortage of cyber security expertise in Irish industry will be launched in Dublin on Thursday, providing a framework of training that can be rolled out over the coming years. Emmet Malone reports.
How secure is your phone? That is a question that many people may be asking themselves as recent event put encryption and its role in our lives back in the spotlight, writes Ciara O’Brien. There are good reasons why encryption exists. It is a layer of protection that helps keep unwanted eyes out of our business, makes sure personal information is safe and ensures your confidential information – bank account log ins and so on – can’t be intercepted.
Vehicles inundate the car parks at Dublin Airport as vacationers escape the Irish heat for summer stickiness elsewhere, and Ryanair places its biggest order yet with Boeing. It seems we are remaining compulsive flyers despite aviation carbon emissions, writes Chris Horn.
Elise Vens, Emmet Lowry and Nathan Gaborieau are the young entrepreneurs behind Ecode, a QR code-based system aimed at making consumers and clothing brands more aware of sustainability, writes Elaine Keogh. The trio met while studying for a master’s in sustainability at Trinity College Dublin and were struck by the fact that although the majority of consumers said they want to buy less, and more responsibly, it was difficult to do so because the fashion industry was not able (or willing) to share its sustainability-related data easily.
Irish newspapers, and RTÉ too, tend to make a virtue of their heritage. It is a way of conveying authority, a means of playing the trust card. This column, named after a 17th-century economist, is only one example, writes Cantillon. Our resident sage also tells us that the decision by Swedish mining group Boliden to “temporarily suspend operations” within the next four weeks at Tara Mines in Co Meath means there will be no functioning zinc mine in the country for the first time in about 50 years.
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