Ryanair pilots vote on industrial action; the pensions hole and stamp duty revenue target

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

Moya Doherty is the subject of our interview this week.
Moya Doherty is the subject of our interview this week.

Ryanair pilots are voting on proposals that could lead to strike or some other form of industrial action. Barry O Hollaron reports.

Also, Barry has details of theletters to Ryanair cabin crew from their agency employers that show staff face changes to their rosters and monitoring of their work if their in-flight sales underperform.

Staying with things aviation, Barry reports that Aer Lingus was worth ¤2.2 billion at the end of 2016, almost 50 per cent more than the sum paid for the Irish carrier by International Airlines' Group (IAG) 16 months earlier, industry analysts say.

Property and tax specialists remain sceptical that the Government can reach its revenue target from the budget increase in commercial stamp duty, despite a late move to close off tax avoidance schemes which could have cut the yield sharply. Cliff Taylor reports.

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The financial hole in the pensions funds of Ireland's largest companies jumped almost 40 per cent last year, according to a new report. The companies with the worst deficits in cash terms were Diageo (€1.1 billion), CIE (€730 million) and Bank of Ireland (€446 million). Dominic Coyle has the details.

"I left Ireland on New Year's Eve 2011. It wasn't just one thing. It was a combination, " Neil O'Sullivan, on leaving, living and working in Australia.Ulster Bank has become the first bank in the State to allow customers to access a banking app using a facial recognition feature on Apple's new iPhone X, writes Colin Gleeson.

Will Dieselgate soon be a blip in the German car industry's rearview mirror? Derek Scally reports from Berlin.

Ikea's sales in Ireland in the financial yearto the end of August rose by 10 per cent to more than €167 million, according to figures released on Friday morning by the Swedish home furnishings giant. Mark Paul reports.

Robots and artificial intelligence will revolutionise the workplace, but at what cost? Olive Keogh gets to grip with that thorny existentialist question.

"What would we have then? A horrible, grey dystopian place where there is no richness?" Moya Doherty on subsidising the arts in our weekly interview by Mark Paul.

Conn Ó Midheach

Conn Ó Midheach

Conn O Midheach is Assistant Business Editor - Digital of The Irish Times