The resumption of international tourism is back on the agenda, with the Government understood to be planning to open a travel bubble between the Republic and Britain within weeks. Mark Paul has the full story on the plan, which would be structured outside the EU 'green certificate' travel scheme.
The State appears to be one the few developed countries that has avoided an increase in income equality over the past three decades, according to a new study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports on the research, which also found a "consistently high incidence" of income poverty and material deprivation among certain groups.
Cork is to be the centre of a major scaling up of the State's capacity to exploit the rapidly emerging field of quantum computing. Kevin O'Sullivan has details of a multi-million-euro investment that will see the appointment of 45 researchers at Tyndall National Institute (TNI), which is attached to UCC.
Thousands of Irish families owe almost ¤90 million in gas and electricity bill arrears following more than a year of Covid-19 curbs, official figures show. Barry O'Halloran reports on the issue, which has come to the fore as regulators prepare to lift a temporary ban on energy suppliers cutting off customers.
Remember Dublin City Council's plan for a whitewater rafting facility in the docklands? Mark Paul argues today that it may have been a good idea after all. He says it would have helped address a wider shortage of physical attractions for tourists visiting the country and should never have been used as "a convenient scapegoat for political criticism of everything else that is wrong".
In our Agenda section, Joe Brennan delves into this week's ¤1.7 billion-plus deal that sees Mitt Romney-founded Bain Capital take over Irish-based Valeo Foods. He asks how Valeo made it from a jam and sweets business to a €1.2 billion annual sales machine, and considers the backdrop of a market awash with private equity cash looking for deals.
John FitzGerald uses his economics column to consider the need for all kinds diversity in academic economics, noting along the way that women researchers are penalised for time spent out of the workforce to have children or engage in care duties.
Now that plans for post-Covid workplaces are starting to take shape, Olive Keogh asks if a non-linear model might improve the way we work. The idea of what constitutes a working day is up for renegotiation, she writes.
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