Russian airlines could be frozen out of the aircraft leasing market well beyond the Ukraine conflict, one of the industry's biggest players warned on Tuesday, blaming what executives have described as a default involving hundreds of Western jets, Reuters reported. Global leasing companies had until Monday to sever ties with Russian carriers under Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, but executives say only a fraction of the more than 400 jets directly involved have been returned.

All Irish lessors terminated their Russian airline leases by Monday's European Union sanctions deadline and have so far had limited success in recovering their aircraft, the representative body for the sector in Ireland said, Reuters reported. Aircraft Leasing Ireland (ALI), members of which include SMBC Aviation Capital, Avolon, Aircastle and AerCap Holdings , which is the world's biggest aircraft leasing company, said that all of its members have complied fully with the sanctions.

Irish retail sales rose in February as Covid-19 restrictions were lifted and consumers spent more in bars, and on hardware and electrical goods, the Irish Times reported. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show retail volumes were up 0.9 per cent month on month. The sectors with the largest monthly increases were bars (13.9 per cent); hardware, paints and glass (7 per cent); and electrical goods (4.8 per cent). Sales volumes, however, in department stores declined by 5.4 per cent.

Gayle Killilea, former wife of bankrupt property baron Sean Dunne, this week appealed a 2019 U.S. jury verdict ordering her to pay nearly €20 million to the trustee of his US bankruptcy, the Irish Times reported. Killilea’s lawyer Patrick Fahey filed the appeal on Thursday with the US court of appeals for the second circuit in New York. She joined her ex-husband Mr Dunne who flied a separate appeal with the same court last year. Thomas Curran, a lawyer for the bankruptcy trustee, said on Friday he is confident the court will uphold the verdict.

Covid-adjusted unemployment in the Republic fell to 7 per cent in February on the back of the lifting of pandemic restrictions in late January. This was down from 7.8 per cent for the previous month and 27 per cent a year ago, the Irish Times reported. The headline rate includes people in receipt of the Government’s pandemic unemployment payment (PUP). The Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimated there was as many as 180,745 people classified as being either out of work or in receipt of the PUP last month.

It’s “unrealistic” that the European Central Bank will raise interest rates in June, Governing Council member Gabriel Makhlouf told the Financial Times, Bloomberg News reported. The central bank may stop net bond purchases in June or a few months later, after which it would raise rates, he told the newspaper, adding that there’s “a bit of difference” between its schedule and the one market participants are anticipating.

The Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) is calling for a tax amnesty for hospitality firms to help them survive beyond the expected lifting of restrictions next month, the Irish Independent reported. It comes after insolvency experts predicted that more than 1,000 firms could close their doors from next year, once government supports end and pandemic debts are called in. Retailers and business organisations say small, domestic, independent firms will be worst hit.

Ireland will no longer require vaccinated arriving travellers to present a negative COVID-19 test, Prime Minister Micheál Martin said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. A government spokesman said the change would take effect on Thursday. Unvaccinated travellers will still be required to show a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before arrival. Ireland introduced the testing measure a month ago to slow the spread of the new Omicron coronavirus variant. Omicron now accounts for almost all Irish infections, which have rocketed to record levels in the last two weeks.

Government tax receipts surged to a record €68.4 billion last year as consumer spending and employment rebounded from the pandemic at a sharper-than-expected rate, the Irish Times reported. Year-end exchequer returns, published by the Department of Finance, show tax receipts rose by almost 20 per cent or €11 billion last year despite the negative impact of restrictions to curb the coronavirus at the start of the year. The latest numbers pointed to an exchequer deficit of €7.4 billion for 2021, an improvement of nearly €5 billion on 2020.