Screening for Covid, vaccine advance, and tax credits for remote working

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Plusvital’s Leanne Corduff, left, and chief executive Mike Shelley at the company’s testing facility. The Dublin company hopes to provide pre-travel Covid-19 screening and provide results within six hours. Photograph: Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography
Plusvital’s Leanne Corduff, left, and chief executive Mike Shelley at the company’s testing facility. The Dublin company hopes to provide pre-travel Covid-19 screening and provide results within six hours. Photograph: Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography

Irish genetic science specialist Plusvital hopes to provide pre-travel Covid-19 screening after boosting its capacity to handle 1,000 virus tests a day and provide results in six hours. Barry O'Halloran has the details.

News of a breakthrough by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech on a Covid vaccine that could be delivered by the end of this year will be music to the Government's ears and would justify the massive spend to prop up the economy since March, writes Cantillon.

Against a backdrop of much criticism around its formation, the chairman of the Future of Media Commission Brian MacCraith has promised to hold "extensive engagement with stakeholder groups" before making its recommendations next summer on the funding of Irish media. Laura Slattery has the details.

Mistakes are "pervasive" in the allocation of European Union cash to projects across the bloc, the European Court of Auditors has warned following a review of spending in 2019. Naomi O'Leary reports from Brussels.

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The company behind Ribena has redesigned its bottle to make it fully recyclable in a bid to cut down on plastic waste. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.

In personal finance, Fiona Reddan details the various tax credits you can claim if you're working from home.

In Q&A, Dominic Coyle answers a reader's question about inheriting a property in France.

Tomorrow is Singles Day, a big sales event in China and other parts of Asia. Laura Slattery looks at why it has failed to catch on among retailers in the West.

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Ciarán Hancock

Ciarán Hancock

Ciarán Hancock is Business Editor of The Irish Times