What Friday's papers say

IRISH TIMES

- The Irish Times leads with the results of its latest opinion poll carried out by Ipsos MRBI, which shows that Simon Coveney leads Leo Varadkar among voters in general - by 42 per cent to 37 per cent - in the race for the Fine Gael leadership. Fine Gael has also overtaken Fianna Fáil for the first time since the general election, leading its rival by 30 per cent to 27 per cent.

- In business, the paper says motor insurance premiums could rise in the next few years as the industry looks to put together a €150m fund to meet some of the costs of compensation claims arising from the failure of another insurer. The move is part of a new framework being developed by the Government to avoid a repeat of a three-year saga to decide who should pay claims linked to the collapsed Setanta Insurance.

- The Irish Times says China's gigantic $7 trillion funds industry is said to be looking at Dublin as a potential European base in the wake of Brexit. A high-powered delegation of Chinese fund managers was in Dublin yesterday to scope out the potential for doing business here, the paper adds.

- The paper says a new Ryanair base at Belfast International Airport and a sharp drop in sterling helped to boost tourism spending in Northern Ireland by 11 per cent to £851m last year, quoting figures from the NI Statistics and Research Agency.

FINANCIAL TIMES

- The Financial Times leads with oil, saying producer group Opec has agreed to extend its production cuts into next year, as the cartel and its allies step up attempts to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

- The FT says diehard Royal Bank of Scotland shareholders intent on seeing the bank's disgraced former chief executive Fred Goodwin in court are leading resistance to a settlement with the lender in a £700m lawsuit over its 2008 rights issue prospectus, which came months before a £45.5 billion bail-out.

- The paper says bankers and traders in the City of London and Canary Wharf are outspending the general public on EuroMillions lottery tickets in the hope of striking the £100m jackpot. It quotes figures from lottery operator Camelot showing that in-store sales of tickets in Canary Wharf and the City have risen by 300 per cent over the past six weeks, compared with 87 per cent in the rest of Britain.

- The FT says Walkers crisps scored a spectacular own goal on social media after a competition fronted by Gary Lineker for tickets to the UEFA Champions League final was sabotaged by online pranksters tweeting images of dictators and criminals.

IRISH INDEPENDENT

- The Irish Independent also leads with the Fine Gael contest, saying Simon Coveney relentlessly attacked Leo Varadkar's vision for Fine Gael and the country last night as he sought to win over the grassroots at the party's first hustings.

- The paper says the final report of an Oireachtas committee drawing up a 10-year plan for the health service has recommended that queue-jumping by private patients in public hospitals should be phased out over five years.

- In business, the Irish Independent says British insurance giant Legal & General has selected Dublin as the new European hub for its investment management arm, saying a spokesman for the business yesterday confirmed the decision to the paper. The total number of new jobs may be fewer than 50, but the paper says the move represents a significant win due to the company's status.

- The paper says New York-based fund TIAA-CREF, which manages $889 billion worth of assets, has lifted its stake in the listed landlord and developer Hibernia REIT to above 5 per cent.

IRISH EXAMINER

- The Irish Examiner also reports on the poll boost for Simon Coveney, and also quotes him as admitting that he had a bad start for the first 48 hours of the leadership campaign.

- The paper quotes a report from the State Claims Agency which blames "systems problems" for incidents in hospitals which led to the state's paying out €177m in damages between 2010 and 2014. The incidents involved included delayed diagnoses, faulty medical devices, missed medication and wrong medical records applied to patients.

- The Examiner reports on a survey by Fáilte Ireland which shows that at least eight counties - mainly along the border -are not sharing in a general tourism boom which has been driven by big increases in North American visitors.

- The paper quotes Revenue chief Niall Cody as saying that Brexit would "change the nature" of online shopping, with deliveries from Britain being subject to the same costs as a package from the US or Asia, in the absence of an agreement between Ireland and Britain.