What Friday's papers say

US scraps key tax plan; Hammond's two-stage Brexit plan; CSO figures show 'accommodation time bomb'

The main headlines from today's newspapers

IRISH TIMES

- The Irish Times reports that a key part of the US plan to reform its corporate tax system - the introduction of a border adjustment tax - has been abandoned. The paper says the change posed one of the greatest threats to Ireland, and that the government and IDA will welcome the move.

- The paper says EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has fired a diplomatic warning shot across the bow of his British counterparts by warning that the pace of talks may not be sufficient to reach a critical milestone in October.

- In business, the Irish Times says Ardagh Group, the Irish-led glass and metal containers group that floated in New York this year, has warned that a recent dip in the dollar against the euro is likely to shave €30m off its full-year earnings.

- The paper says business leaders and politicians in Galway have reacted with anger to a move to push back until mid-October a court decision on plans by tech giant Apple to build an €850m data centre in Athenry.

FINANCIAL TIMES

- The Financial Times says British chancellor Philip Hammond has told business leaders he wants to negotiate a two-phase Brexit deal, starting with an "off-the-shelf" transition period during which Britain would maintain current trading relations with the EU.

- The FT reports that the head of Britain's Financial Conduct Authority, Andrew Bailey, has signalled the end of Libor, the interbank lending rate at the heart of a multibillion-dollar banking scandal, calling for reliable alternatives to be introduced by 2021.

- In companies news, the paper says the future of the A380, the biggest passenger jet, is in doubt after Airbus slashed its rate of production for the second time in just over a year and signalled it was not optimistic about winning new orders in the short term.

- The FT says Twitter shares fell by more than 10 per cent yesterday after the social network failed to attract enough new users in the second quarter to reassure investors on its momentum, amid fierce competition from rival platforms.

IRISH INDEPENDENT

- The Irish Independent leads with the latest figures from Census 2016, which the paper says show that the traditional family unit is changing rapidly, with less than a third of households comprising married couples with children.

- The paper says RTÉ has appointed former Workplace Relations Commission chief Kieran Mulvey to conduct a review into the gender pay gap at the state broadcaster, after unions called for a detailed breakdown.

- The Irish Independent reports on new figures which show that Nama has paid out more than €39m in fees to Irish and international law firms since 2010, with Arthur Cox topping the list with a total of just under €3.4m.

- The paper says developer Gerry Gannon has suffered a major blow after plans for a €55m housing development in Gorey, Co Wexford, were turned down.

IRISH EXAMINER

- The Irish Examiner also leads with the CSO Census 2016 figures, highlighting that the number of adult children living with their parents has almost doubled over the last decade to almost 500,000. The situation has been described by politicians as an "accommodation time bomb".

- The paper says it understands that a Gsoc report which followed a complaint by Ian Bailey about Garda misconduct in relation to the murder investigation of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in west Cork in 1996 is undergoing a "thorough" internal legal review and could be some months away from being published.

- In business, the Examiner says Diageo has reported that net sales in Ireland were flat during its last financial year, with a 2 per cent rise in Guinness sales mainly driven by the success of the Hop House 13 lager brand.

- The paper says US biopharmaceutical company BioMarin is considering building a second plant in Ireland pending the approval of new drugs. The company yesterday marked the opening of an extension of its Shanbally plant in Cork, its only manufacturing facility outside the US>