Ireland

Ireland’s economy would suffer a significant blow and could even risk recession if U.S. President Trump targeted the country with higher tariffs or changed tax rules, the Central Bank of Ireland said Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a quarterly report, the central bank lowered its growth forecasts for this year and next, citing the impact of uncertainty about Trump’s future actions on investment and exports. It now expects gross domestic product to grow by 4% in both 2025 and 2026, having previously forecast an expansion of 4.2% this year and 4.5% next.

Since the beginning of the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, there have existed two different insolvency regimes on the island of Ireland, the Irish News reported. In 2024, there were 852 total insolvencies in the Republic, a 16% increase on 2023. Some 305 companies in Northern Ireland declared insolvency in 2024, an almost 40% increase. Of course, a portion of the explanation will always rest on the sizes of the respective jurisdictions, but Northern Ireland’s much stricter post-Covid insolvency procedures can also help us understand this discrepancy.

The National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the state’s ‘bad bank’, appears to have got the best available price for a Northern Ireland portfolio of loans known as Project Eagle, a seven-year investigation has found, the Irish Independent reported. Nama had previously been criticised by the Comptroller & Auditor General for making a loss of £162m (€195m) from selling assets in Northern Ireland, and for the way it handled the sale. This prompted the Irish government to set up a commission of inquiry in 2017, which reported last October after several extensions.

More than half of councils responsible for special educational needs provision will not be able to balance their books when a “statutory override” ends next year, a survey has suggested, the Irish News reported. Councils are able to keep high needs deficits – where the cost of providing support outstrips the special educational needs and disabilities budgets available to councils – off their main revenue accounts.

A solicitor’s secretary has won around €7,000 for unpaid wages and statutory redundancy after her employer became insolvent and a plan to have her transfer to another firm fell through, The Irish Times reported. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) made orders against David Gaffney, trading as Gaffney Solicitors, on foot of complaints under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 and the Redundancy Payments Act 1967 by Leona Erangey in a decision published on Wednesday.

The Irish economy recorded a surprise contraction as 2024 drew to a close, a blow to the eurozone economy, of which it is one of smallest but most changeable members, the Wall Street Journal reported. But while the country’s central bank expects to see a return to growth this year and next, it has also warned that the Irish economy is particularly vulnerable to changes in tax and tariff policies under President Trump’s second administration.

Non-bank lenders provided €20bn in credit to Irish households and small businesses in 2023, according to new analysis by the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), the Irish Examiner reported. Based on data from the Central Bank, the BPFI said non-bank lenders account for about 15% of outstanding credit. Encompassing a large and diverse group of financial enterprises, non-bank lenders do not offer deposit accounts, but provide a wide range of credit facilities for consumers and SMEs.

The board of Cork-based PMD Device Solutions has filed for bankruptcy following a review of the company’s financial position which found that it could not resolve its short-term liquidity requirements rendering it unable to meet critical obligations, the Irish Examiner reported. PMD Device Solutions develops and sells medical products for respiratory monitoring in both the hospital acute monitoring sector and the remote monitoring home care sector.