The average price of a home in Ireland is eight times higher than the average Irish income, MyHome.ie said on Wednesday, with the housing affordability gap now at its widest since the 2008 financial crisis.
Irish average annual earnings stood at €52,950 in the three months to the end of June, the property website said in its latest report on asking prices for homes. Meanwhile, the average purchase price of a home over the same period was €426,000, meaning the house price to income ratio stood at eight to one. Ian Curran reports.
Highly profitable multinational fast food operators stand to be the big winners from Budget 2026.
The Government followed through on a commitment to cut the rate of VAT for food and catering businesses - as well as hairdressers - to 9 per cent from 13.5 per cent.
The measure is expected to cost the exchequer €681 million in a full tax year, almost €300 million more than the next most expensive tax cut announced by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe. Dominic Coyle has the details.
There’s no getting away from it: the nights are starting earlier and the weather has turned. It will be many months before the sun starts setting after 8pm again.
Not only does that mean winter is coming, it also means it is a good time to start looking at home security. Dark evenings are the perfect cover for potential burglars, so deterring any unwanted visitors is important.
Technology can help, says Ciara O’Brien. From security cameras to smart alarms, there is something for all needs and all budgets.
US chicken wing franchise Wingstop is set to open its first location in Ireland at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre this winter.
The restaurant is expected to be open before Christmas and the company’s first outlet in Ireland will include a dine-in location at Liffey Valley in Dublin as well as delivery through Deliveroo. Hugh Dooley reports.
Google’s new folding phone, the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, is here. The third version of Google’s Pixel Fold was announced at the company’s Made by Google event in August, but it has taken until October for it to hit the market. That gave the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 a head start, writes Ciara O’Brien in her tech review.
Now that the novelty has worn off the whole folding phone concept, is there anything to get excited about?
The sense of entitlement that people should be allowed to pass on their wealth free of tax because it has already been taxed on accumulation is misplaced. There is no such right, nor is there any particularly strong argument for one, argues Cantillon.
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke thinks the VAT cut for the hospitality sector announced in the budget will salve the troubled souls of the sector’s emboldened lobbyists. “This argument is finished,” the Fine Gael TD told reporters on Wednesday. He is already mistaken about that, Cantillon also reckons.
The power of social media is such that there’s no going back. Its reach is wider than advertising and PR put together, and the burning question for businesses is how best to leverage this new commercial asset.
Stepping up to put its powers of persuasion more easily within the reach of marketeers and brand managers is Greta Dunne, founder of Marker Video. It is a content marketplace that collects short product videos made by consumers and sells them for promotional use, writes Olive Keogh.
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