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Irish Times
5 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
European shares rise amid German tax relief package approval
European stocks closed higher on Wednesday, buoyed by German cabinet approval of a €46 billion corporate tax relief package aimed at kick-starting growth. The relief package, the first of a broader series of measures from Berlin's new government, is an attempt to prevent the struggling economy from shrinking for a third consecutive year. Meanwhile, trade talks between the US and Europe are progressing, according to European negotiators, who added that the doubling of US metals tariffs, which kicked in on Wednesday, are not helping negotiations. The pan-European Stoxx 600 closed up 0.5 per cent after briefly touching a one-week high. READ MORE DUBLIN The Iseq All-Share Index dipped 0.7 per cent to 11,371.66, dragged down by banking stocks as sector followers positioned themselves ahead of the European Central Bank's (ECB) rates-setting meeting on Thursday, at which it is expected to lower official borrowing costs again. AIB lost 3.7 per cent to €6.82, while Bank of Ireland dipped 2.7 per cent to €11.98. Still, Ires Reit edged 1.7 per cent higher, as property stocks typically fare better when rates fall. Ryanair edged 1 per cent higher to €23.74. Chief executive Michael O'Leary disclosed late on Tuesday that he has sold €21 million worth of shares in the company that were held in a pension scheme connected to him. LONDON The FTSE 100 index closed up 0.2 per cent, helped by news that the S&P Global UK services purchasing managers' business activity index rose to 50.9 points in May from 49.0 in April, improving upon the flash reading of 50.2 released late last month, and above the 50.0 no-change threshold. Babcock International, an aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company, gained 4.3 per cent amid further consideration of the UK defence spending review this week. DiscoverIE Group jumped 15 per cent after reporting higher profit and an increased dividend. The designer and manufacturer of electronic components for industrial applications said pretax profit was £32 million (€38 million) in the financial year ended March 31st, up 44 per cent on the year. But B&M European Retail struggled, falling 14 per cent as its annual results failed to inspire investors. Brent oil was lower at $64.65 (€65.58) a barrel at the time of the London equities close on Wednesday, compared to $65.73 dollars on Tuesday. EUROPE Most European sectors rose, with technology leading gains. The food and beverages sector rose, buoyed by a 6.4 per cent rise in Campari. Among individual movers, Airbus SE shares rose 2.2 per cent after Bloomberg News reported Chinese airlines are considering ordering hundreds of aircraft as soon as next month. STMicroelectronics jumped 11.1 per cent after its chief executive said the French-Italian chipmaker has seen signs of an upturn. NEW YORK Wall Street shares were ahead in early afternoon trading and US treasury – or bond – yields were lower as investors monitored movement in trade negotiations and looked ahead to Friday's critical US employment report. On the economic front, payrolls processor ADP reported the US private sector added 37,000 jobs last month, or 69.2 per cent fewer than analysts expect the Labor Department's more comprehensive employment report to show on Friday. Additionally, survey data showed the US services sector slipped into contraction last month, while prices paid – an inflation predictor – hit the highest level since November 2022. Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise rose as demand for the company's artificial-intelligence servers and hybrid cloud segment helped it beat estimates for second-quarter revenue and profit. GlobalFoundries inched higher after the chip manufacturer announced plans to increase its investments to $16 billion. Tesla dropped. The electric-vehicle maker's sales fell for the fifth straight month in big European markets. Shares of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike slumped after it forecast quarterly revenue below estimates. Dollar Tree fell as the discount store operator forecast second-quarter adjusted profit could drop as much as 50 per cent from a year ago due to tariff-driven volatility. – Additional reporting, Reuters, PA
Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Health
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: The Government has bottled it on gambling — our young people will pay
Technology has supercharged the gambling problem. You no longer have to enter a seedy bookie's. You can gamble 24/7 and discreetly do so on your dopamine-delivering phone, with no visible signs. Maybe you're of the mindset that thinks human vices should be legal, but there is an issue around targeting minors who are not fully capable of making decisions. As the Tabor Addiction Group said: 'Young people are particularly vulnerable, with gambling addiction affecting them at two to three times the rate of adults.' They are also subjected to the rapid expansion of increasingly sophisticated gambling opportunities. Last Friday, legendary hurler Davy Fitzgerald's son Colm Fitzgerald received a 12-month suspended sentence for stealing money from his former employer, the Bank of Ireland, to feed his serious gambling habit. Colm Fitzgerald 'expressed relief' when his theft was discovered. He did all he could to cooperate with An Garda Síochána, repaid the money with the help of his family, and has sought treatment, speaking of suffering shame and remorse. At 28, he's just starting out. Addiction is a disease and not a choice. The very best of luck to him in building a new life. Colm Fitzgerald, 27, outside Ennis Circuit Criminal Court, where he received a suspended 12-month sentence after he pleaded guilty to theft of 35,000 from Bank of Ireland. Picture: Brendan Gleeson I mention his painful experience only because how he started to gamble is not uncommon. For many young people, recreational sports betting will have been a gateway to problem gambling. Squads of young men I know in their 20 now engage in sports gambling. Most of them start gambling in their teens and played sports themselves. Sports gambling has become such a big part of sports culture because the gambling industry has worked hard to establish a connection between sporting events and sports betting, while also encouraging cultural acceptance of gambling. It's not spoken about much, but it's there, humming along in the background of young lives, with, I suspect, many parents relatively clueless as to the extent of it. To this cohort of middle-class young men, gambling has become entirely normalised. For many young people, recreational sports betting will have been a gateway to problem gambling. Stuck in a cycle of online betting as they age, it will become apparent whether their gambling is mild, moderate or severe, with potentially negative repercussions on their finances, wellbeing and relationships. For some, they will chase their losses and dig themselves into a deeper hole until the problem becomes too big to hide. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) estimates one in 30 Irish adults has a gambling problem. This figure is likely to be conservative. A report released this year indicates we have one of the highest rates of gamblers per capita in the world. Evidence shows children are twice as likely to become problem gamblers later in life if they start betting before the age of 18, which, as chief executive of the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland Anne Marie Caulfield, says, justifies 'clamping down very hard'. So, how hard has the Government clamped down on gambling? Housing minister James Browne, then minister of state with responsibility for the legislation, said he experienced 'endless' lobbying from the gambling industry, hardly a surprise given it is worth somewhere between €6bn and €8bn. Intensive lobbying came from the Irish Bookmakers' Association, which represents betting shops and online operators like Paddy Power, Ladbrokes, and Boylesports. While it's a positive to have a dedicated authority to streamline the regulation and licensing of gambling, which has been piecemeal until now, this legislation has been in the pipeline for 11 years, since a Fine Gael-Labour government first proposed new gambling laws. It certainly hasn't been rushed through. As of March, the new Gambling Regulation Act 2024 came into effect, establishing this new gambling watchdog. However, most of the provisions of the act, although signed into law, have not yet commenced. Consequently, it's business as usual for most gambling companies in Ireland, which are not currently required to follow the new laws. It is hoped that these new rules, which prohibit online gambling advertisements on certain social media services unless the person has an account with the platform concerned, will have an effect. This is designed in part to protect underage people who have been targeted with advertisements on social media. Two glaring holes remain in the act, which suggest the gambling industry successfully forced the government to capitulate. File picture: iStock However, two glaring holes remain in the act, which suggest the gambling industry successfully forced the government to capitulate. First, the proposed watershed restriction on gambling advertisements between 5.30am and 9pm does not go far enough. How many teenagers and young people do you know who go to bed by 9pm? Part of the normalisation of gambling is advertisements are widespread. A blanket ban on ads should be considered, as was introduced with tobacco products. Secondly, there is no outright ban on free bets, as was initially envisaged in an early version of the bill. Free bets are a popular promotional tool, offering bettors a 'free bet' to encourage them to sign up to a site or service, or to reward existing gamblers for their repeated use of an online sportsbook, thereby encouraging continued use. Mr Browne said he could not accept a complete ban on free betting inducements and bonuses. This watering down of the legislation was a missed opportunity. As I was researching this article, an ad immediately popped up offering me exclusive offers for 50 free spins from a casino. Other ads followed this, all offering me "bonuses". As Senator Lynn Ruane pointed out in the Seanad when her amendment to the then bill failed: 'These types of inducements are an entry point into gambling for young people." The gambling industry's pushback was that any business needs to seek out and attract new customers proactively. But why shouldn't we approach betting companies in the way we dealt with the tobacco industry? This is what Taoiseach Micheál Martin, who introduced the highly successful workplace smoking ban as minister for health, proposed back in 2022 when he spoke about taking the same approach to gambling, including 'across the full gamut of advertising regulation'. We don't allow tobacco companies to advertise, and we don't let them offer coupons or deals on cigarettes, so what is the logic behind allowing gambling ads, inducements and promotions that encourage gambling? A national self-exclusion register will prohibit gambling operators from accepting bets from gamblers who have self-excluded from online services, yet this places the onus on the individual gambler to stop rather than on the operator. Such is the scale of the problem that banks, such as AIB, Bank of Ireland, EBS, and Revolut, are offering voluntary self-exclusion tools that block access to online casinos, slot machines, and lottery websites. Once again, the responsibility lies with the individual to act. When Bank of Ireland introduced its voluntary block last month, figures revealed men placed 71% of bets in the first quarter of 2025. Ninety per cent of gambling transactions took place online, and there was a 19% increase in gambling among 18- to 25-year-olds in the same quarter. When you have an industry as lucrative as the gambling industry, which generates significant revenue and employment, compromises will inevitably be made. But while the new legislation is being heralded as introducing a new era for the regulation of Irish gambling, it does not reflect the principles the government originally set out. Ultimately, the government bottled it, allowing gambling companies to influence our public health policy and thousands of people, many of them too young to understand what they are getting into, will pay a high price.
Irish Independent
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Independent
ECB set to cuts rates this week as inflation cools faster than expected
The ECB is widely expected to cut rates on Thursday at a scheduled meeting of its governing board. A rate cut of a quarter of one percent would bring the rate for the ECB's main refinancing operation – a reference for Irish tracker mortgages – to 2.15pc, a level last reached in late 2022. Traders are currently placing a 96pc chance on cut on Thursday, which will be the eighth cut since last June to the bank rate, currently at 2.25pc. Consumer prices rose 1.9pc in the year to the end of May, slowing from an inflation rate of 2.2pc in April. Excluding volatile items like food and energy inflation moderated to 2.3pc, while pressures in the closely watched services sector cooled markedly. It's the first time in eight months and only the second since mid-2021 that headline inflation hasn't exceeded the target. Inflation had spiked to 10.6pc in October 2022. Due to the uncertainty over how the global trade situation will evolve, the ECB will provide scenarios alongside its quarterly projections on Thursday. In March, it saw inflation slowing to 1.9pc in 2026 and 2pc and 2027, from 2.3pc this year. The strengthening of the euro, as the dollar has fallen, combined with softer energy costs have helped ease prices more quickly than many had expected. On Tuesday Bank of Ireland said it is cutting interest rate paid to savers on 12 and 18-month term deposits by 0.25pc from Thursday, June 5th. Customers who are in the process of opening new 12- or 18-month fixed-term deposit accounts can still avail of the current rates if they open their account by the close of business on 4 June, the bank said. It will take the interest earned for locking into the bank's Advantage 12 Month Fixed Term account to 1.74pc. The interest earned for locking into the Advantage 18 Month Fixed Term account will fall to 3.36pc (an annualised rate of 2.24pc). Bank of Ireland said the rate reduction will not affect its other savings accounts, including SuperSaver, the bank's most popular choice for new regular savings, which continues to offer a 3pc AER (Annual Equivalent Rate) for 12 months. Savers who are already locked into fixed-term deposit account will continue to earn interest at their original rate until the end of their term. The move comes ahead of an expected European Central Bank rate cut in Thursday, which will be the eight in succession. The ECB has lowered interest rates by a cumulative 1.75 percentage points in a year in a bid to calm inflation. In the same period Bank of Ireland, headed by CEO Myles O'Grady, has reduced its 12 and 18-month term deposit rates by a total of 0.75pc including the latest cuts.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ireland Construction Industry Report 2025-2029: Public and Private Sector Investments in Residential, Transport, Electricity Infrastructure Driving Growth
Explore Ireland's construction market growth, projected at 3.3% in 2025 and 4.8% annually from 2026 to 2029, driven by investments in transport, housing, and infrastructure. Key reports detail sector analysis, project pipelines, and future opportunities. Get insights from leading experts to drive strategic business decisions. Dublin, June 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Ireland Construction Market Size, Trends, and Forecasts by Sector - Commercial, Industrial, Infrastructure, Energy and Utilities, Institutional and Residential Market Analysis to 2029 (H1 2025)" report has been added to analyst expects the construction industry in Ireland to grow by 3.3% in real terms in 2025, before recording an annual average growth of 4.8% from 2026 to 2029, supported by public and private sector investments in transport, electricity, and residential infrastructure sectors. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the total number of planning permissions granted for construction grew by 2.2% in 2024, preceded by a decline of 7.4% in 2023. In February 2025, the Minister of Transport, Darragh O'Brien, Minister of State, Sean Canney and Jerry Buttimer announced a EUR713 million ($776.9 million) investment program for regional and local roads in 2025. This funding represents an increase of over 8% compared to the previous year, and aims at enhancing road safety and improving the interconnected regional and local road network, ongoing maintenance and renewal of the regional and local road network, along with strategic investments to develop and enhance road infrastructureIn January 2025, the state-backed lender 'Home Building Finance Ireland' revealed that the loan approval for housebuilders increased by 42% in 2024, increasing from EUR1.7 billion ($1.9 billion) in 2023 to EUR2.7 billion ($2.9 billion). It had approved funding for the construction of 13,186 new homes in 23 counties. Furthermore, in February 2025, the Bank of Ireland revealed that it has approved EUR600 million ($653.8 million) in new construction loans aimed at supporting housebuilders in delivering approximately 4,000 new homes by 2028. This is in line with the Bank of Ireland's goal of facilitating the construction of 21,000 homes by 2028. Notably, this initiative also includes a commitment to provide 9,500 social and affordable homes, highlighting the bank's dedication to addressing housing needs in the community. In March 2025, the Minister for Housing, James Browne, announced a funding of EUR436 million ($475.1 million) for the construction of more than 1,300 new social homes across the country by 2027. Also, the Irish government announced in January 2025 that it plans to construct 41,000 housing units in 2025 and 43,000 units in 2026. The government aims to deliver 303,000 homes by the end of 2030. Scope Historical (2020-2024) and forecast (2025-2029) valuations of the construction industry in Ireland, featuring details of key growth drivers. Segmentation by sector (commercial, industrial, infrastructure, energy and utilities, institutional and residential) and by sub-sector Analysis of the mega-project pipeline, including breakdowns by development stage across all sectors, and projected spending on projects in the existing pipeline. Listings of major projects, in addition to details of leading contractors and consultants Reasons to Buy Identify and evaluate market opportunities using our standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies Assess market growth potential at a micro-level with over 600 time-series data forecasts Understand the latest industry and market trends Formulate and validate business strategies using the analyst's critical and actionable insight Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures Evaluate competitive risk and success factors Key Topics Covered: 1 Executive Summary2 Construction Industry: At-a-Glance3 Context3.1 Economic Performance3.2 Political Environment and Policy3.3 Demographics3.4 Risk Profile4 Construction Outlook4.1 All Construction Outlook Latest news and developments Construction Projects Momentum Index 4.2 Commercial Construction Outlook Project analytics Latest news and developments 4.3 Industrial Construction Outlook Project analytics Latest news and developments 4.4 Infrastructure Construction Outlook Project analytics Latest news and developments 4.5 Energy and Utilities Construction Outlook Project analytics Latest news and developments 4.6 Institutional Construction Outlook Project analytics Latest news and developments 4.7 Residential Construction Outlook Project analytics Latest news and developments 5 Key Industry Participants5.1 Contractors5.2 Consultants6 Construction Market Data7 AppendixFor more information about this report visit About is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. CONTACT: CONTACT: Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager press@ For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Bank of Ireland savers facing third interest rate cut of year on some accounts
Bank of Ireland will reduce interest rates on its 12 and 18-month fixed-term deposits by 0.25% this week. From Thursday, the bank will reduce rates from 1.99% to 1.74% on its Advantage 12-Month Fixed Term fixed term accounts, and from 2% to 1.75% on its Advantage 12-Month Annual Equivalent Rate (AER) accounts. The Advantage 18-Month Fixed Term will see rates cut from 3.73% to 3.36% and from 2.48% to 2.24% for 18-Month AER accounts. This will be the bank's third cut this year for some savers, with previous cuts in January and February. Up to 25% of funds can be accessed during the term of an Advantage Fixed-Term Deposit Account. 'Customers who are in the process of opening new 12- or 18-month fixed-term deposit accounts can still avail of the current rates if they open their account by the close of business on 4 June,' a Bank of Ireland statement said. 'Existing fixed-term deposit account customers will continue to earn interest at their original rate until the end of their term.2 There are no changes to any other savings accounts, including SuperSaver, which continues to offer a 3% AER for 12 months.
