A big shift in the government’s attitude to the controversial Dublin Airport passenger cap will occur this week once a new minister for transport is appointed, the Sunday Business Post reports.
While the incoming parties believe former Green Party minister Eamon Ryan would have been loath to find solutions that would have led to the passenger cap being lifted, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are now expected to be “at one” on the issue.
It is expected the DAA will be advised by the government to develop a number of options to solve the issue before beginning a series of engagements with the new minister, who will have the full backing of government to find a political solution.
Speaking to the Business Post this weekend, DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs
said the escalation of the conflict this week has led him to consider legal action against Fingal County Council. Mr Jacobs said he was “blindsided” by a statement from the local authority on Tuesday evening that rejected as invalid a planning application to raise the cap to 36 million passengers per year.
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Early AIB share sale on the cards
Officials in the Department of Finance and the National Treasury Management Agency are weighing the sale of another tranche of the State’s shares in AIB in the early days of the incoming government, according to the Sunday Times.
A strong share price and keen investor appetite could allow the offloading of up to 10 per cent of shares in the bank, according to market sources, in a move that would raise nearly €1.3 billion for the exchequer.
Developer’ €200m land hoarding ‘war chest’
Fitzpatrick & Heavey Homes has amassed a €200 million “war chest” to snap up sites from landowners who face hefty site hoarding taxes from next month, according to the Sunday Business Post
The firm, led by Ciarán Fitzpatrick and Michael Heavey, currently has 350 homes under construction nationwide.
Mr Fitzpatrick said the company wants to buy enough land for 1,000 new homes and has capacity to begin construction on each of these homes in 2025.
From the beginning of February, Revenue will begin to issue notices for payment under the Residential Zoned Land Tax. The new measure will involve landowners being charged a 3 per cent levy on the market value of vacant land zoned for housing.
Councils face crackdown on housing targets
The incoming government is planning a crackdown on local authorities that fail to meet their homebuilding targets amid mounting pressure on ministers over the worsening housing and homelessness crisis, according to the Irish edition of the Sunday Times.
With Fianna Fáil set to hold on to the Department of Housing and Darragh O’Brien expected to remain the senior minister, plans are being drawn up to establish a new strategic housing and infrastructure delivery office in the Custom House to “turbo charge” home delivery.
The draft programme for government, which is set to be formally approved by Fianna Fáil today and by Fine Gael on Monday, states that the new office will “help co-ordinate and accelerate homebuilding by unblocking infrastructure delays”.
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Vit Hit sells a million cases in the UK
Vit Hit’s UK sales have hit a million cases – or 12 million bottles – for the first time and the Irish vitamin drink brand has just agreed new national distribution deals in Spain and France, the Sunday Independent is reporting.
Founder and biggest shareholder Gary Lavin said he was aiming to almost double turnover to €50 million before even considering selling, despite having had a number of offers and discussions with big drinks companies.
Cognizant blames Google for work-from-home refusals
Cognizant, an outsourcing company that supplies hundreds of workers for tech giants based in Dublin, has told 75 staff that Google’s requirement for them to be in offices is the reason it had to refuse their applications to work from home, the Sunday Independent reported. The government introduced a new law last year granting workers the right to request remote working from their employers. Disputes about whether employers are complying with the law are ruled on by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
Trump launches cryptocurrency with price rocketing
US president-elect Donald Trump has launched his own cryptocurrency, which quickly soared in market capitalisation to several billion dollars, according to the BBC. His release of the meme coin, $Trump, comes as he prepares to take office on Monday as the 47th president of the US.
The venture was co-ordinated by CIC Digital LLC – an affiliate of the Trump Organisation – which has previously sold Trump-branded shoes and fragrances. Meme coins are used to build popularity for a viral internet trend or movement, but they lack intrinsic value and are extremely volatile investments.
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