FINANCE Minister Michael Noonan said he won’t be renewing the capital gains tax (CGT) relief on properties that have been held for seven years in Budget 2015 because there was, he said, a “wall of money” in the commercial property sector at the moment.

Mr Noonan introduced the measure in 2011 to attract international investors and give a boost to the State’s then beleaguered commercial property sector.

He extended it …

THE Government is planning to raise €1bn in a bond auction this week, surprising analysts who expected this round of fund-raising to be modest. The auction of a 10-year bond at 3.4pc takes place on Thursday, just weeks after the State’s first post-bailout bond auction, which also raised €1bn at record low borrowing costs.

State owned Permanent TSB said it has made almost 12,000 offers to customers in long term mortgage arrears.

It means 61pc of customers in long term arrears have had a debt modification proposal from the bank.

The bank says it is working on a scheme that could see debt written off after a customers home has been sold.

The German government has agreed to a 3pc wage increase for some 2.1 million public sector workers this year and a 2.4pc pay rise next year, Verdi union leader Frank Bsirske said this week.

The agreement – one of the biggest pay hikes for public sector workers in years – takes effect retrospectively from March 1 and also includes a pay raise of at least €90 per month this year …

OVER-SPENDING on healthcare is posing the biggest threat to our economic recovery, the European Central Bank has warned.

Health Department expenditure – already €49m over budget three months into the year – needs to be reined in if our recovery is to stay on track, it said.

Ireland is also vulnerable to international trade issues – but health spending is the one area singled out as problematic in the ECB’s …