A round-up of today's other stories in brief...

Bank of England warning over dangers of ceasing stimulus

Bank of England policymaker David Miles said officials must not withdraw stimulus too soon, signalling they may have to ignore an inflation rate that still exceeds the government’s 3 per cent limit.

The bank faces the “risk of tightening monetary policy too soon”, Mr Miles said in a speech in Dublin yesterday. This risk “is one that I would consider small if it were clear that the economy was on a typical upswing of the sort of cycle we used to think normal.”

He spoke as reports highlighted the dilemma facing the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, split on whether to pay more attention to inflation or the threat of a new recession.

€3m expansion for dental firm Smiles

Dental care firm Smiles is to create 100 jobs next year in a €3 million expansion.

The company is to open 10 new clinics, with the first opening in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, in January. Three of the new clinics will be in Dublin. The company will also expand its premises on Waterloo Road in Dublin.

Smiles Dental opened in 2005 as a tooth-whitening clinic and has grown to 13 clinics around the country.

Founder and chief executive Emmet O’Neill said the company’s strategy was to appeal to people at a local level, and also expand to allow it to compete on price.

Bank staff vote for industrial action

Workers at Bank of Scotland (Ireland), which is a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group, have voted for industrial action. Unite said 94 per cent of workers voted in favour of action “over the failure of bank management to provide any clarity on the establishment of a separate company to handle the winding down of the bank’s operations in Ireland”.

Bank staff may commence industrial action on October 20th if “meaningful negotiation” does not happen.

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) said it “remains fully committed to meaningful consultations with Unite”.