Well, you could say we have learned to live with Covid-19, at least if our top 10 most-read online business stories are anything to go by. In 2020, Covid-related stories figured prominently; this year, that hardy annual, Brexit, makes an appearance. But our readers seemed more interested in personal finance topics, the cost of living and that touchstone of modern Ireland – housing.
1 The depths of January are depressing enough. Throw in a raging pandemic and it would drive you to drink, or not, as the case may be. It is little wonder that Fiona Reddan's story "New rules on sale of alcohol to be introduced on Monday'" clocks in at number one with a thumping 235,562 views.
Heaping pain upon misery, alcohol sales were disallowed from supermarket voucher schemes and multibuy deals were also shelved.
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The changes were brought in as part of the rollout of government efforts to reduce the consumption of alcohol under the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018. Grocers and off-licence outlets were also prohibited from awarding loyalty card points on alcohol sales.
2 Our second most-read article of the year concerns the burning issue du jour – housing. Every week Dominic Coyle answers readers' personal finance questions in a very popular question and answer column. This query, "How does Revenue view adults living rent-free in parents' property?'" was from a worried parent asking Coyle for his advice on the tax implications of letting an adult child, who had been paying a landlord €700 a month for a small bedroom in a shared house, to live rent-free in a flat owned by the parents and now worth €335,000.
With housing occupying people’s minds when not worrying about Covid, it is little wonder that the article clocked up and impressive 172,599 views.
3 One of the enduring legacies of the pandemic has been the pivot to online shopping, a trend that seems irreversible. A major beneficiaries of this development has been, of course, Amazon. The online behemoth has gone from strength to strength the longer the public health emergency has endured.
This story also involves another readers’ favourite – Brexit.
In "Irish Amazon customers to bypass Brexit barriers as it plans Dublin distribution centre'" Mark Paul outlined how the retail giant had moved closer to opening its first Irish fulfilment centre at a business park in Baldonnel, west of Dublin. A recent fulfilment centre that Amazon opened in the UK was announced as creating 1,000 jobs.
4 Brexit, like Covid and its many mutations, seems like it will be with us forever. In this article – "Brexit red tape: 'If nothing changes, Ireland will be closed'" – Barry O'Halloran and Simon Carswell recount the frustrations and obstacles faced by importers and exporters alike in dealing with the checks and red tape that happen when a member of a giant trading bloc chooses to leave under the hardest conditions possible.
One of the conclusions of the piece was that Northern Ireland was bearing the brunt of Brexit. It is part of the UK but remains aligned with the EU single market, so an Irish Sea customs border separates it from Britain. As the year ends, that conundrum is still at the top of the agenda in the UK, the EU and the Republic.
5 Clocking in at number five with a respectable 130,146 views is one of our weekly roundups of what it says in the Sunday papers.
This particular offering ran with the headline "Banks prepare to impose negative rates on personal customers", and told us that customers with large account balances would be the first targeted by the move.
6 Our old friend Brexit appears again at number six, with the ironic headline "Pro-Brexit campaign Leave. EU relocates to Waterford" which garnered a solid 126,292 views. The story, by Charlie Taylor, said that Leave.EU, a pro-Brexit campaign bankrolled by Ukip backer Arron Banks, had migrated the registered office for its website to Waterford so that it could retain its '.eu' internet address.
The move came as more than 80,000 .eu domain suffixes belonging to British users were suspended following Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
7 Pensions are another issue which periodically command our attention. As the Government wrestles with the concept of auto-enrolment Fiona Reddan in her story – "At almost ¤13,000, how generous is the Irish State pension?'" – compared the State pension with other countries. And as always the devil is in the detail. The article racked up 121, 459 views.
8 Our eighth most-read story returns to the topic of housing. Dominic Coyle hears from a reader who is trying to help out his daughter in buying a house and wondering whether loaning her and her partner money would have tax implication. The article, under the headline "Will Revenue allow me lend my daughter the full price of her new home?", accrued 121,054 views.
9 A Covid story does make it into our top 10. This one dealt with the tax bills due for those who had to avail of the State's pandemic wage subsidies during 2020. Headlined "Thousands of workers to get Covid-19 tax bills next week", the article by Fiona Reddan and Eoin Burke-Kennedy clocked up 117,680 views.
10 Love it or loath it, but WhatsApp has become an indispensable tool for those working from home in the ongoing pandemic. However, its seemingly unstoppable rise hit a speed bump when it changed its terms and conditions and lost users to rival apps. "Millions of users move away from WhatsApp after terms of service update'"was the headline on the article which garnered 113, 527views.
