Posts by splash

Many jobseekers are finding that recruitment has become a marathon rather than a sprint. Roles that carry any real responsibility or competitive salary often involve several stages of screening, from online tests and case studies to panel interviews and culture-fit meetings. Some of these steps focus on technical ability, others on personality and values, yet…

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has submitted a formal complaint to the European Ombudsman, raising concerns about the European Commission’s use of generative artificial intelligence in official documentation. The issue came to light after an access to documents request revealed that at least one hyperlink in a Commission response had been produced using OpenAI’s…

Ireland’s annual inflation rate climbed to 2.9% in October, according to new data from the Central Statistics Office. This marks the highest annual reading since March and represents a slight rise from the 2.7% recorded in September. The CSO figures show that the strongest upward pressure came from Education costs, which increased by 8.4% over…

The Government has moved to defend its decision to remove annual delivery targets from its latest housing strategy, arguing that rigid yearly numbers can distract from long-term progress. Minister for Housing James Browne said that data on housing completions will still be published each year, but that fixed annual benchmarks are not always the most…

EU finance ministers have reached political agreement to abolish the long-standing customs duty exemption on low-value goods entering the bloc. At present, items worth less than €150 can be shipped directly to consumers across the EU without attracting import duties, a rule that has become increasingly exploited by high-volume retail platforms such as Temu and…

The United States has brought an end to the longest federal government shutdown in its history after President Donald Trump approved a new funding bill. The legislation passed through the House of Representatives with a narrow majority and followed a week of tense political negotiations in Washington. The measure reinstates funding for key federal programmes,…

The Government is preparing to unveil its latest National Housing Plan, a strategy that aims to reshape Ireland’s housing landscape over the next six years. Ministers have described the initiative as an unprecedented investment in housing, although opposition figures remain sceptical about its potential impact. The plan sets out an ambition to deliver 300,000 homes…

The filing window for the latest Local Property Tax cycle has now closed, following a surge in activity from homeowners eager to update their property valuations on time. Revenue reported a sharp increase in submissions on the final day, with more than 18,000 returns completed by midday ahead of today’s 5.30pm cut-off. Homeowners were required…

Market rents in the year to September have risen by 4.3%, according to the latest rental report by Daft.ie. In the third quarter of this year market rents went up by an average of 1.7% , the eighteenth consecutive quarter of rising rents. This means they are now one third higher than their pre-covid levels,…

The Government will launch its housing plan tomorrow. It will be the fourth in 12 years. The first, called the Social Housing Strategy, was launched by then minister for the environment Alan Kelly in 2014 when the Labour Party was in coalition with Fine Gael. That was followed by Rebuilding Ireland under the then minister…