The row over insurers’ failure to pay out on business interruption cover dominates the latest set of rulings announced by the Financial Services Ombudsman, the Irish Times reported. The digest of decisions – the sixth published by the ombudsman’s office – gives summaries of 21 decisions issued during 2020 and 2021, of which 12 relate to the investigation of complaints relating to business interruption insurance. “To date, we have received 1,051 complaints arising from the circumstances surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic,” the ombudsman, Ger Deering, said.
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Permanent or long-term debt relief arrangements on mortgages “have substantially higher success rates” than temporary arrangements and are in the best interest of both borrowers and lenders, a new research paper published by the Central Bank has concluded, the Irish Times reported. “This is particularly true during a crisis such as that in Ireland after the 2008 crash, where borrower income shocks were deep and long-lasting, and negative equity was widespread,” the paper’s authors Claire Labonne, Fergal McCann and Terry O’Malley have written.
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It may be a further 18 months before long-planned new rules are in place to make it easier for regulators to hold senior managers in banks and other financial firms accountable for failings under their watch, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said, the Irish Times reported. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday after securing Cabinet approval to publish the heads of the Central Bank (Individual Accountability) Bill, Mr Donohoe said that it will take up to six months for the planned laws to go through pre-legislative scrutiny with the Oireachtas Finance Committee.
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Former millionaire property developer Philip Marley has succeeded in halting the work of a forensic accountant who was appointed as his bankruptcy trustee, the Independent reported. The Irish High Court this week put a stay on a previous order vesting the colourful businessman’s bankruptcy estate in accountant Mícheál Leydon. The move followed claims by Mr. Marley that the appointment was “rogue” and had been “engineered” by an aggrieved creditor, Maven Capital Partners LLP.
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Ryanair has reported a €273 million loss for its first quarter even as traffic rebounded during the period, the Irish Times reported. The carrier said that it carried 8.1 million passengers in the three-month period, covering April to June. This compares to just 500,000 in the same period a year earlier. Revenues increased 196 per cent from €125 million in the first quarter of 2020 to €371 million for the same quarter this year. Operational costs also rose, however, jumping from €313 million to €675 million.
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The British government said that the post-Brexit trade rules it negotiated with the European Union “cannot go on” and need a major rewrite, straining already-tense U.K./E.U. relations and drawing a message of concern from the U.S. government, the Associated Press reported. The government said Britain would be justified in unilaterally suspending the legally binding Brexit agreement but had decided not to do so just yet. Since the U.K. left the EU’s economic embrace at the end of 2020, relations have soured over trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K.
A stand-off between drugmaker Mallinckrodt, the Dublin-based but U.S.-run drugmaker, and a small group of dissident shareholders, claiming their rights are being suppressed as the company goes through a restructuring in bankruptcy, is on track to be aired before the High Court in Dublin later this year, The Irish Times reported.
Growth in the Irish economy last year has been revised upwards, making it one of the strongest performers globally, despite the pandemic and the restrictions imposed on domestic activity, the Irish Times reported. The economy grew by 5.9 per cent in gross domestic product (GDP) terms last year, according to updated figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The CSO said headline GDP has been revised upwards from a preliminary figure of 3.4 per cent due to the availability of more comprehensive data.
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On the crowded waterside quay of Dublin’s Silicon Docks neighborhood, Google’s European headquarters tower above the skyline. Facebook and Twitter are neighbors. The European bases of Apple, Pfizer and hundreds of U.S. multinationals are implanted around the country, symbols of the commerce produced by Ireland’s famously low corporate taxes.
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A former millionaire property developer facing fraud charges in Ireland is seeking to challenge the appointment of a forensic accountant as his bankruptcy trustee, the Independent reported. Philip Marley alleges that the appointment, made at the behest of a creditor, was “rogue” and “invalid”. He made the claims in the High Court before Mr Justice Richard Humphreys, the judge who approved the appointment of accountant Mícheál Leydon last March.
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