A political party in Germany is threatening to upset the State's plan to cut its bailout costs by €150 million, in a move the Minister for Finance has described as "disappointing". The Social Democratic Party - a junior party in Germany's last government - is seeking to highlight what it describes as the "secret deals" available within the Irish tax system, according to Derek Scally and Joe Brennan.
The ongoing inquiry into the sale of Siteserv to a company controlled by Denis O'Brien in 2012 plans not to hear oral evidence from Social Democrats TD, Catherine Murphy, whose claims about the deal in the Dáil in 2015 prompted the investigation in the first place. Joe Brennan and Barry O'Halloran explain why.
In property, Fiona Reddan looks at the seemingly inexorable rise of Airbnb, with even religious orders getting in on the act in Dublin. Comparing the returns from short-term lets against those available from long-term leases, it isn't hard to see why business is booming.
In Caveat, Mark Paul highlights "virtue-signalling", which he explains as "certain tendencies of the self-righteous gang who police everybody's morals on social media". He goes on to consider to what extent the same phenomenon is evident in the corporate world.
In his column, the minimum wage is on John FitzGerald's mind as he looks back over 17 years since its introduction. Overall, he judges its impact to have been positive, at least for certain groups.
And still in the world of work, it's that time of year again - the dreaded annual performance review is once again upon many of us. Olive Keogh considers whether the procedure still serves a positive purpose given, in the words of one expert: "Everybody hates writing them, everybody hates getting them and nobody believes them."
