Out of Office: Congestion wars and student housing woes
The Business Post gets you up to date with the big stories of the day
Welcome to the Business Post’s Out of Office, your daily round-up of the day’s business, tech, markets, legal and politics news.
The subject of cars clogging up the streets of our cities, and what to do about it, has been a hot topic this week. Daniel Murray reported on a government proposal to target electric car grants at people in rural Ireland. Earlier, Eamon Ryan said he was expecting significant blowback to his department’s wide-ranging traffic reduction strategy.
You can also read Daniel’s piece from earlier in the week on ambitious plans to tackle congestion here, and Paschal Donohoe’s response here. Does it sound like he has one eye on the general election?
Donal MacNamee reported on the latest twist in the controversy at University of Limerick, after the state’s higher education regulator raised major concerns over the “governance and culture” at the institution.
It came after the Business Post revealed on Sunday that it paid “significantly above market price” when purchasing 20 houses at a cost of about €12 million.
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In finance, Kathleen Gallagher reported that GSB, a Dubai-headquartered wealth manager, has opened a new European hub in Ireland. It is the latest advice firm to set up shop here, following Fairstone, Hawksford, Kingswood, Quilter Cheviot and RBC Brewin Dolphin.
There was good news for Eamon Waters, whose investment firm finally secured planning permission to build a 50-bed extension to the Grafton Hotel, and also for Apple’s main Irish subsidiary, which announced profits of $38.6 billion for last year.
And in the United States, Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX co-founder, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars from customers, while J&J agreed a $75 million settlement over the company’s talc-based baby powder.
News in brief
* NSFW: Elon Musk’s X tests adult content material
* J&J to pay $75 million to settle $6 billion baby powder suit
* Lufthansa reaches pay agreement with ground staff
* Unions challenge employer ‘myths’ around labour reforms
* UK ended 2023 in mild recession
What BusinessPost.ie subscribers are reading
* Irish far right videos viewed ‘over 13.5 million times’ on YouTube
* Digital healthcare firm Wellola raises €2.2m
* Crypto exchange Kraken commits to Irish growth after ending year on a high
* US lawmakers told WuXi sent intellectual property to China
