The high cost of childcare and difficulties securing childcare places in Dublin has damaged the ability of companies to recruit staff and is driving employees, especially women, out of the workforce, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce has warned.
Almost nine in 10 businesses told an outlook survey conducted by the organisation that the childcare crisis affected their ability to attract and retain staff, with a fifth of all companies describing it as the primary barrier to doing so. Laura Slattery has the details.
In her weekly column Pilita Clark ponders one of the central questions of our time: why is it that, even as the dangers of a warming world grow ever more alarmingly visible and even though we have known what to do for decades, the response to the gathering climate threat continues to be so inadequate?
Supply chain difficulties in the global aviation industry will improve but continue for much of the decade, leaving airlines to deal with disruptive and costly fleet planning challenges for years to come, a report by business advisory giant PwC has found.
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Aircraft deliveries will increase significantly this year with the largest rebound coming from Boeing, despite the US manufacturer’s troubles, according to PwC’s 2025 Aviation Industry Review & Outlook, written by Dick Forsberg, senior aviation finance consultant for PwC Ireland, reports Laura Slattery.
Sentiment among food and drink manufacturers is “broadly positive” but will likely weaken in the months ahead as costs increase, according to a manufacturing report published by Food Drink Ireland (FDI).
FDI, which is affiliated to business representative group Ibec, said its 2025 manufacturing report Appetite for Growth found that 58 per cent of companies in the sector rated the manufacturing environment in the Irish market as good or very good. Laura Slattery reports.
In our Opinion slot, Pat Farrell, chief executive of Irish Institutional Property, argues that the scale of historic undersupply of housing means quick-fix solutions are nowhere in sight and successfully meeting the challenge will outlast any Government term and requires a generational response. More importantly, it cannot be solved by the taxpayer alone. The scale of funding needed demands the involvement of institutional capital.
I’ve been sceptical that artificial intelligence (AI) will radically remake labour markets in the short term, in part because so much hype comes from the tech industry itself. But in the last couple of months, I’ve encountered some very diverse use cases for artificial intelligence that have me thinking differently, writes Rana Foroohar.
A question from a reader: I work full time in Dublin and my 90-year-old mum lives down the country. She lives on her own with the necessary support of carers three times a day (one of which we pay for). It generally works well and I am grateful for the HSE carer support morning and evening.
I know there is paid carer’s leave but not for sporadic days like I have been taking to fill gaps in my mum’s care. I also know I can take a number of unpaid carer’s leave days but I am wondering are there any other options for leave where it may not affect me financially or affect my pension? Dominic Coyle answers your personal finance queries.
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