Data retention directive declared invalid by European Court of Justice
The European Court Of Justice has declared the data retention directive, which requires Irish mobile operators to log details about users’ locations, emails, text messages and internet use, to be invalid.
The court said that the directive “interferes in a particularly serious manner with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data”.
The court ruled this morning following a challenge to the directive …
Exchequer Returns to be revised as €100m incorrectly classified
THE Department of Finance is to issue revised Exchequer Returns for March after it discovered about €100m in collected tax was wrongly classified as VAT.
A department spokesman said the money should have gone into the income tax pot.
The discrepancy arose because one of the banks wrongly classified the tax, the spokesman said. The Central Bank notified the department of the error.
Irish economy to grow faster this year as recovery creates 50,000 jobs – IBEC
THE Irish economy will grow faster than previously expected as 50,000 jobs are created and consumer spending improves, business group IBEC said in a new report.
IBEC’s first quarterly report for 2014 also said that there are growing signs that recovery is ongoing as it revised up its GDP economic growth projections to 2.9pc as investment in the economy increases by 21.5pc – its earlier prediction was 15.5pc.
This growth …
US job growth too slow, warns IMF
nternational Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said job creation in the US is “not at potential”, as regulatory and policy uncertainties deter some companies from taking on staff.
In an interview with Fox News yesterday, Ms Lagarde also urged the European Central Bank to address the eurozone’s risk of low inflation and said Ukraine’s government must adopt some of the measures it has pledged to take before receiving IMF …
Businesses blame rising costs for increasing dissatisfaction
Satisfaction among businesses with the Government is falling thanks to rising costs in the banking sector and elsewhere, according to a survey of more than 1,000 companies by the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (ISME).
“Recent modest improvements in job figures are noted, however the continuing creep of business costs and the lack of adequate bank credit have negatively impacted on the overall rating,” said ISME boss Mark Fielding. …