Search Results for: Ireland

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN, DAVID HAWORTH, RUSSELL BERMAN, MARK GODFREY and GAVIN BLAIR

INTRODUCTION

WHILE the drinks industry is undoubtedly an important sector in the global economy, the honest truth is that there are bigger players in town: the IT sector, steel making, and food, to name a handful.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL, LEAH GERMAIN and MONICA DOBIE

MAYBE the best sign that renewable energies have hit the mainstream is that they now have their very own international organisation: the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Launched in Bonn, Germany, this January, with the support of 76 countries, including its host nation, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden, the roster of signatory nations has since been swollen by India and Belarus.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A MAJOR cigarette smuggling boom is being reported in Ireland by customs teams, with a record 135.2 million cigarettes being seized last year, almost twice the amount seized in 2007. Of these, 56.82 million were counterfeits, the country’s Sunday Independent newspaper has reported.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has drawn back from a robust collective response to the swine flu crisis, despite the disease spreading around Europe. Meeting on Thursday, the EU Council of Ministers for health rejected a French proposal for an EU-wide travel ban to Mexico, the source of the outbreak.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE AIRPORTS of Norway and Iceland are well suited to dealing with the impact of border-free travel with each other and many member states of the European Union (EU), having joined the EU’s frontierless Schengen-zone in 1999, abolished all border checks for travel to member countries in December 2001.…

By Emma Jackson

A research team at Queen’s University Belfast, in Northern Ireland, has renewed a relationship with Aquamarine Power, a leading marine technology energy company. Together they may create the next generation of wave power converters that could someday be an alternative source of power for European maritime states.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has concluded in a detailed report that a fully functioning European Union (EU)-wide single market in natural gas and electricity is far from complete. It spoke of a "mixed picture of the progress of completing the internal energy market".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EVERY recession has a silver lining: inefficient competitors are unmasked and forced out of business; and governments usually spend freely to pump prime an ailing economy. And for major essential industries such as the power sector, economic slumps can be good times.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE THUMBSCREWS are being turned on the world’s tax havens, preventing their banks hiding assets from tax investigators worldwide. A comprehensive communiqué from April 1 and 2s’ G20 meeting in London committed member governments "to take agreed action against those jurisdictions which do not meet international standards in relation to tax transparency."…

BY SYMON ROSS

IRELAND’S largest bank Allied Irish Banks (AIB) has been accused of major accounting deficiencies by its former chief internal auditor, who has also attached the performance of the Irish Financial Regulator. In testimony to the Oireachtas [Irish parliament] joint committee on economic regulatory affairs this week (NOTE – TUESDAY) Eugene McErlean – the AIB group internal auditor from 1997 to 2002 – alleged years of overcharging of customers by managers under pressure to meet targets.…