A judge has further extended protection under the Personal Insolvency Acts for a Co Galway man with debts of about €8.5 million, the Irish Times reported. A personal insolvency practitioner for Gerry Connolly of Kilternan, Kilcolgan, Co Galway, had previously obtained a 40-day extension of a protective certificate under the Acts. This was sought to allow more time to deal with Mr Connolly’s creditors and prepare a proposal for a personal insolvency arrangement. The bulk of Mr Connolly’s €8.5 million debt is to Ulster Bank Ireland DAC.

Irish government spending is accelerating at an unsustainable rate, and overruns in day-to-day spending are likely to top €2.5 billion by year end, the budgetary watchdog has warned, the Irish Times reported. In a prebudget statement the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) said spending overruns were more broad-based this year than in the previous years, with expenditure across education, children and justice already up by 7.5 per cent against a targeted increase of 2.5 per cent.

U.S. risk advisory business Kroll has acquired Kirby Healy, a Dublin-based corporate insolvency practice, for an undisclosed sum, the Irish Times reported. The New York-headquartered company, which provides a range of services from valuation, compliance and regulation, said the move would deepen “Kroll’s footprint in Ireland” and was part of a broader growth strategy in Ireland, aimed at meeting increased demand. The acquisition increases the company’s Irish team to more than 70 employees and the number of restructuring experts it has in Dublin to 26.

President Trump’s planned 15 percent tariff on medicines from Europe has shined a spotlight on Ireland, which sends the United States tens of billions of dollars’ worth of cancer medications, weight-loss drug ingredients and other pharmaceutical products each year. No other country sends more, the New York Times reported. Manufacturing blockbuster medications there offers tax benefits for American drug companies. But the appeal of Ireland for the industry goes deeper: Drugmakers have long shifted their patents and profits there, as well, to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.

Already struggling with “astronomical” input cost increases, independent brewers are set to face a further hike in their commercial water charges, the Irish Times reported. Despite the dramatic increases to their costs, independent brewers across Ireland are limited in their ability to pass them on to consumers, as they compete with far larger, commercial breweries. The confirmation of a 9.8 per cent hike in water charges has brewers concerned amid the closures of several well-known, award-winning breweries across the country.

Ireland’s factory output fell sharply in June as exports to the U.S. halved, helping to push the economy into contraction after a first-quarter boom, the Wall Street Journal reported. The country’s Central Statistics Office on Friday said manufacturing output was 12.0% lower than in May, having risen sharply in that earlier month. Over the three months through June, output was 2.1% lower than in the first quarter. Ireland’s manufacturing output surged in the first three months of the year as exports of pharmaceuticals to the U.S. jumped. That jump was driven by U.S.

Irish financier Paul Coulson has agreed to cede entire control of Ardagh Group, the glass bottles and drink cans giant he built up over the past 25 years, to a group of its bondholders in exchange for a share of a $300 million (€257 million) pay-off, the Irish Times reported. The company at the top of Ardagh Group corporate tree has an estimated $12.5 billion of debt, which became unsustainable after its earnings were hit since the Covid-19 pandemic by inflation, soaring interest rates, and soft consumer demand on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ireland’s economy contracted in the three months through June following a first-quarter surge, and faces an uncertain future as U.S. tariffs rise, while the government plans to ramp up its investment spending, the Wall Street Journal reported. A surge in exports of pharmaceuticals to the U.S. led Ireland to far outstrip the growth rates of other rich economies in the three months through March, with gross domestic product expanding by 7.4%, the equivalent of an annualized rate of 33%. By contrast, the U.S. economy contracted over the same period.

A liquidator has been appointed over Killarney Brewing and Distilling (KBD) company in another blow to the Irish drinks sector, the Irish Times reported. James Anderson of Deloitte was appointed as the liquidator by the High Court on Monday. The move came after a disagreement between the Revenue Commissioners and the KBD about who would be appointed. KBD had sought for Mr Anderson, who was already the existing examiner for the business to be appointed as the liquidator over the company in a High Court hearing on Friday.

Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said U.S. pharmaceutical tariffs would cost the economy thousands of jobs and that his focus is on maintaining competitiveness to protect the country’s long-term success, Bloomberg News reported. Ireland is running a strong fiscal position with a huge budget surplus thanks to corporate tax income from US multinationals such as Apple Inc. and Pfizer Inc. Speaking on Monday at Bloomberg’s Future of Finance in Ireland event in Dublin, Donohoe said that the government must use that surplus with an eye on the longer term.