Property developer Paddy McKillen does not believe the state of Qatar supports the owners of the luxury Maybourne Hotel Group in their court dispute with him, he told John Burns this week. The group which owns the luxury Claridge’s, Connaught and Berkeley hotels in London, is controlled by a former emir and a former prime minister of Qatar. Mr McKillen was speaking after a ceremony associated with his new role as honorary consul of Vietnam in Ireland.
Green hydrogen developer Mercury Renewables plans to raise €100 million later this year to fund further expansion after announcing a key project for the northwest, writes Barry O’Halloran. The Foxford, Mayo-headquartered company wants to build a €200 million green hydrogen plant on the Mayo-Sligo border.
Pilita Clark offers some valuable advice this morning about learning to say no in the workplace. She notes that the skill comes in particularly useful over the summer, when the risk of being asked to fill in for absent colleagues and do work that equally absent bosses will fail to notice is substantial
Trust levels among the public in Irish banks remain negative, but have been improving in recent years off a low base, according to the Irish Banking Culture Board. Joe Brennan reports that the Irish banking sector received a net score of minus 15 in a public survey, up from minus 25 last year.
A storm is brewing over the Government’s proposed 20 cent tax on disposable coffee cups, with the industry warning the move could cost 4,200 jobs while failing to cut waste. Barry O’Halloran has more on opposition to the so-called latte levy, which aims to discourage use of paper takeaway coffee cups and thus cut waste.
Barry also reports on an Accenture survey finding that most Irish businesses expect to boost wages this year as they face further pay pressure from workers.
In his Q&A column, Dominic Coyle responds to a reader who wonders if they can let rooms out to tourists this summer and still qualify for Revenue’s rent-a-room relief.
As EU residents continue to await permission to join Threads, Elaine Moore argues that social media networks are just not very sociable these days. Feeds are algorithmic, she writes, which means you see whatever the apps want to show you rather than what your friends might be posting.
And in our guest opinion slot, Brendan Kearney this week warns that the restoration of lost biodiversity in our land will be a long, arduous and likely unpredictable process after years of intensive farming.
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