Covid-19 | Business Post

Book review: Tony Holohan memoir holds few revelations and little if any contrition

Erstwhile chief medical officer famous for his role during the Covid pandemic has written a worthy and humane book, but certainly not a particularly gripping one

Revealed – the €14.4bn budget trick

Behind the ‘prudent’ core Budget 2024 package of €6.4 billion lie shadow ‘temporary’ spending figures that bring the real total to a less reassuring €14.4 billion

No sign of drop-off in post-pandemic parcel delivery

Online shopping is booming and Parcel Connect aims to triple its annual volume to 7.5 million packages a year in the next two years

WeWork shares collapse as firm fields ‘substantial doubt’ over its future

Co-working business cited sustained losses and cancelled memberships to its office spaces

Penneys topped €693 million in Irish sales last year

In the accounts the company said it plans to invest over €250 million in Ireland over the next nine years

Personal Finance

Household savings continue to drop from their Covid-19 peak

Savings dropped by €800 million in the first three months of the year

Marion McKeone: No sign of credits rolling on Hollywood strike as studios turn up the heat

Morale remains high on the picket lines despite the scorching Los Angeles heatwave

Irish survival rate for firms from Covid-19 highest in EU

Significant government supports behind low failure rate here compared with other European countries

Pharma patent row to unfold in Irish court as Moderna launches legal action against Pfizer and BioNTech

Alleged patent infringement actions concerning the development of Covid-19 vaccines have been commenced by Moderna in the US, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, and now Ireland

Mairead McGuinness: A digital euro will be the virtual equivalent of cash in your pocket

Covid altered our economies and accelerated the shift to online transactions and now we must reassess our relationship with money

The Big Interview

‘Why we used boxes from the local pizzeria to trial delivery of Covid-19 vaccines’ – PHX Ireland’s Paul Reilly

The chief executive of PHX Ireland on how the state sets the price for most drugs, his concern over the burnout of pharmacists and why they are leaving the retail sector

Irish Covid inquiry to be set up this year – Taoiseach

Leo Varadkar said the first stage of the enquiry would be a scoping exercise

Cabinet signs off on deal to postpone delivery of millions of Covid-19 vaccines

The government here was due to get millions of Covid 19 vaccines from drug makers Pfizer and BioNTech by the end of this year as part of an EU-negotiated deal

Irish Cancer Society concerned detection rates affected by Covid disruption

It comes one day after the HSE signalled that services are recovering well in the wake of the pandemic

IATA global airline profit estimate jumps to $10bn in 2023

IATA expects some 4.35bn passengers to travel in 2023, around 96 per cent of 2019 levels

Chambers: Potential penalties against NCT operator ‘going into the millions’

Minister of State in the Department of Transport has written to the RSA and Applus amid penalty dispute

Chinese scientist challenges Beijing’s view on Covid 19 ‘lab leak’ theory

Former head of China’s Centre for Disease Control says possibility that pandemic originated in a lab should not be ruled out

Musicians warn accommodation shortages impacting demand for concerts

Escalating costs and limited accommodation options are creating barriers for music enthusiasts, according to MEAI

Germany suffers winter recession on bleaker first quarter

Inflation and low consumer sentiment are among contributing factors

Boris Johnson reported to police over fresh ‘potential lockdown breaches’

Met says it is “currently assessing” information relating to incidents between June 2020 and May 2021