Construction slowing in new home development sector

With competition for loan approval building, home development companies are feeling the heat. This year has proved to be one of the most difficult for possible consumers to obtain loans, largely due to the uncertainty that Brexit brings to the table. Due to the lack of accessibility of funds when attempting to purchase a home, many homes have simply gone unfilled. 

Goodbody Stockbrokers, a  company that specializes in asset management and global investment funds, has taken a clear interest to the changes that are currently happening in the market. This company developed a house building tracker, which in turn showed that from April to June 2019 there was a sharp decline in the output of newly developed housing. 

This is largely due to the fact that without the high availability of loans, many homes simply are not getting sold. In the lower priced areas of the housing market, there is significant competition but any home that is priced at or above €500,000 has been struggling to get off the market. In general, this trend is showing that affordability is becoming …

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Rebuilding Ireland is Outdated

The launch of Rebuilding Ireland has just surpassed three years. Many factors have changed since the original plan was initiated. Some figures that were estimated at the time of the launch for Rebuilding Ireland are now out of date. Rebuilding Ireland needs to be re-examined for optimal use because it is not performing as it was initially supposed to.

When the plan was originally drafted, it was predicted that the current number of homeless people would be 65% lower than the current number. The plan was not originally supposed to solve the homeless problem of this magnitude (10,000+ people) which is one of the reasons why it is ineffective. Everybody that is involved in the housing crisis believes this number is lower than what the current statistic is and is not an accurate reflection. with that are not included in this study are people who are crowd surfing, people doubling up with their family, and people sleeping rough. In addition, the 800 people that have been granted refugee or protection are not calculated for.

The prior Minister for Housing signaled …

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PwC pay gap explained

 The pay gap. In 2019, all businesses are well aware of the blatant difference between the average male and female salary. All across the world, the average for women tends to be lower than that of men, despite a significant rise of educated, strong women entering the workforce every year. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PwC for short, is a diverse organization and one of the largest employers in the world. This big four company has been interested in looking more deeply into the statistics of Ireland that surround gender inequality. Recently, this firm came out with it’s own set of statistics, which vary significantly from those published in the past.  

PwC has reported that it has a pay gap of only 5.7pc in Ireland, which differs from the Ibec report that averaged the difference to be at 8.2pc. A partner at PwC Ireland spoke on the companies behalf, saying that the pay gap is due to the larger amount of male counterparts in higher ranked positions or higher paying jobs within the same company. Beyond this, she notes that there is little …

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Property tax could help solve economic inequality

The 2020 Irish Budget, written by the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, is likely to have some major changes implemented within the coming years. The Department of Finance has begun drafting multiple different variations of possible changes in taxation, many of which are targeted at the Vehicle Registration Tax. 

This proposed taxation would crack down on high CO2 emission vehicles and would possibly provide grants or tax breaks to owners of hybrid or fully electric vehicles. In this particular budget, there has been a substantial focus on the environment and upholding the Irish promises of maintaining and promoting environmentally friendly options.

Beyond just these changes, there has been mention of increasing property taxes in the hopes of having a more fair taxation system. The Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) notes that there is substantial income tax collection inequality and that an increase on home tax could be more beneficial in diversifying the collection of tax revenue. Additionally, a home value is usually more substantial than a person’s income, so applying a harsher tax on  property could bring in a more …

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Property Taxes

According to the Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI), property taxes should be raised drastically to diversify tax revenue sources and to address issues of rising wealth inequality. As the government prepares its 2020 budget for 2020, increasing property tax is considered.

The trade union affiliated think-tank proposed ideas that represent a major shift in the tax system and the Government has always manages to neglect changing property taxes because of the associated political unpopularity.

Currently, the Government collects much less property tax revenue than most other European Union countries. Revenue from property taxes equates to only 23.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), while the average tax revenue in the EU amounts to 38.9% of GDP. In comparison with the rest of the EU, Ireland is much more dependent on VAT and excise tax revenues. VAT and excise tax generally have a greater negative impact on the less well off than the impact on wealthy.

Property taxes are the most difficult for the extraordinarily wealthy to avoid according to NERI’s senior economist Tom McDonnell. He continued to denote that underlying assets …

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Pound put on diet, losing weight fast

The price of a pound sterling is based very heavily on what the next few months in the UK hold in regards to Brexit. Currently, the UK is in the middle of electing a new prime minister. As the head of the cabinet and leader of ministers in the executive branch, this person has a significant influence of the political state of the UK. Their actions are bound to affect the price of currency, and already have proven to have done so. 

Within the last week, both conservative candidates who are running for the position of prime minister mentioned that they are both in support of the creation of a hard border in the case that there were to be a no-deal Brexit. Immediately after this debate, the pence dropped significantly in value. 

The pound usually costs around 0.7-0.85 cents to purchase, but as of 16 July you can exchange 90.22 cents for one pound. This is the lowest value that a pence has been in the last 27 years, and is showing trends that indicate the value will continue …

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Homecare services soar

The Health Services Executive of Ireland, or HSE, is a government funded organization created in 2004 under the Health Act. It’s aim is to support the people of Ireland with the social and health related resources necessary to achieve their potential. Additionally, it gives Irish citizens the access to safe, compassionate, and quality health care at home or at a medical center. 

Within the recent years, there has been an influx in the population of adults that are in need of in-home services. The HSE has been outsourcing most of their at-home care business to businesses that are outside of the government, despite the high costs that come with this type of service. According to recent reports, the prices for this type of service can be twice the cost of Health Services Executives. 

Mary Butler, who is a spokesperson for older people, has looked into data and found that the HSE has outsourced basically all of their home care in the nation’s capital. Additionally, smaller cities such as Dún Laoghaire, Dublin south-east, Wicklow, Co Kerry, Co Cork, Co Donegal, Co …

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Pensions

Pensions in Ireland is paid to people from the age of 66 who have enough social insurance contributions. People who qualify for a state pension are also allowed to have other incomes and still receive the State pension. The State pension is taxable, but if the pension is the only source of income it is not likely to be taxed.

In order to qualify for the State pension an individual must have started paying social insurance before the age of 56 and have paid at least 520 full rate social insurance contributions. An individual must also have at least 48 paid or credited full rate contributions from the year they started insurable employment until reaching 66 years of age.

Recent research has shown that only 32% of people would like to continuing to work after the age of 66. This is concerning due to the increasing financial pressure leading to delay in retirement. Another recent statistic gathered from 1,000 employers revealed that only 61% of employees believe that they will have no choice but to work past the age of …

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The Future of Help to Buy Scheme

The help to buy scheme is set to be extended past the original deadline of the end of this year. The help to buy scheme grants money to first time buyers to help and encourage them to purchase their first homes. Currently, the grant gives up to 20 million Euros, but the government Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe signaled strongly that this program will be extended.

Mr. Donohoe said that the grant had, “a very valuable role in supporting the purchase of homes across last year and this year in particular.” The rising house prices in Ireland has caused many young buyers unable to attain mortgages to buy a house and this initiative mainly targets younger couples.

Some complaints with having a help to buy scheme is many people view it as being a subsidy to developers. The payment that the government is giving to buyers is subsequently being paid to the developers. This can encourage them to keep prices raised and not provide a decrease in demand causing prices to lower.

Mr. Donohoe is currently consulting with Housing Minister Eoghan …

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Brexit-proofing your business

What is the best way to protect your business and employees from the unpredictability of the economy and general business sector in a post-Brexit state? Skillnet Ireland seems to have an answer to that problem– increased training. This national agency’s main goal is to facilitate education in the workforce so that Irish workers can be highly skilled in all of the new and dynamic tools in order to be able to compete as a nation against other highly skilled nations.

During last year alone, the company has trained over 56,000 Irish workers in the small-to-medium business sector so that these smaller companies will have the edge up on larger corporations. Skillnet can provide assistance and training through classes with the help of 50 other diverse industry partners. 

The largest category that has participated in the upkeep and acceleration of their workers skills through these classes is micro-firms. Out of the 16,462 firms that participated in educational courses, 56pc of them were smaller than 10 people. Agriculture and general services were the largest overall sectors that felt the need to update …

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