Now our wages are no higher than rest of EU
IT costs less to employ a worker in Ireland than in many other European countries after years of wage stagnation.
New Eurostat figures show that Ireland is now close to the eurozone average for labour costs and behind high-wage countries such as Denmark, Belgium and France.
However, labour costs here are still significantly higher than in our nearest neighbour Britain.
Labour costs vary enormously throughout the EU with workers in …
Companies worth €18.9bn bought and sold in 2013
Companies changed hands to the tune of €18.9bn here last year, a drop of around a quarter compared with 2012.
In value terms, a small number of very big international pharmaceutical deals dominated last year’s activity, according to an M&A Annual Review report prepared by William Fry solicitors.
The number of deals was up, however, and the €500m-and-up range doubled last year.
The €6.5bn takeover of Ireland-based Warner Chilcott by …
Irish bond yields hit an all-time low
The ISEQ index of Irish shares closed down 16.16 points at 4,968.35, mirroring declines elsewhere.
In the bond market, the yield on Irish government bonds hit an all-time low yesterday, slipping down to just 2.98pc to borrow for 10 years.
Yields have been dropping as the volume of bonds traded picked up in recent days.
In Dublin, the most actively traded names were Smurfit Kappa, which closed down 2.76pc at …
Irish technology SMEs hiring new staff and growing exports – survey
IRISH technology firms are upbeat about the future and three-quarters of them are planning to grow their workforce this year.
#In addition, seven out of 10 increased their turnover by an average of 30pc last year and six out of 10 are now looking outside Ireland for their main market, according to a survey by Amarach research for AIB.
The sector employs 30,000 people with a strong emerging technology start-up …
AIB investigating overcharging of some customers
AIB is currently investigating the accidental overcharging of some customers.
The bank said today it was working to rectify the situation as soon as possible.
It is understood some customers were double-charged on March 25 and then again on March 26 for some transactions, it is not known how many consumers have been affected.