Recent examination of gender pay gap data from large employers across Ireland has disclosed a minor reduction in the hourly wage gap between men and women last year. However, significant disparities remain evident in certain sectors, as noted by Ian Curran. PwC Ireland, which carried out the study, established that the hourly gap in the over 550 companies obligated to release gender pay gap data dropped from 12.6% to 11.2% last year.
Seapoint Clinic, a dental practice based in Dublin, has committed €2 million towards a top-tier facility in Sandyford’s Beacon Quarter. Aiming to leverage an anticipated post-Covid upsurge in specific orthodontic care, the 15-year-old group encounters over 1,200 patients monthly and maintains a clinic on Seapoint Avenue in Blackrock. The group delivers employment for over 50 individuals, as reported by Colin Gleeson.
Throughout the pandemic, our temporal awareness was noticeably altered, a fact widely reported globally. Some in Italy felt that time extended, while a segment of the British population experienced it as having quickened. Parallel to jet lag sensations, researchers in Victoria, Australia—an area known for its lockdowns—have compared this temporal distortion. Almost one year has passed since the World Health Organisation pronounced that Covid-19 was no longer a global public health crisis, leading many to question whether our sense of time should have returned to normal. Pilita Clarke suggests this might not necessarily be the case.
MyGug, a start-up based in Cork focusing on converting food waste into energy, has collected €900,000 in seed funding. This investment is intended to facilitate its growth into the UK and Europe. MyGug’s unique anaerobic digester, shaped like an egg, has already found usage in Irish food services and educational settings; it serves to convert food waste into sustainable energy and fertiliser. MyGug aims to broaden its international presence, reports Ian Curran.
In a 2018 report by the Office of Public Works (OPW), tucked away was a noteworthy evaluation of the risk that extreme flooding events pose to Dublin. Eoin Burke-Kennedy notes that for Ireland, weather events arising from climate change are likely to present predominantly as flooding.
As per new analysis from KPMG, there was a significant decline in funding for Irish fintech companies in 2023, a year during which the international market saw a similar downturn in deal values and amounts. A combination of intertwining factors – such as increasing interest rates, political unrest, and persistent high inflation – led to a decreased interest in technology investments as investors chose to keep their funds safe. The details of this highlight have been chronicled by Ian Curran.
Dominic Coyle, in his Your Money Q&A feature, addresses an enquiry about a solo parent juggling two children and striving to meet her mortgage repayments amidst a harsh timeline of ten rate hikes within 18 months. The government had heralded this as a lifestyle expense control measure aimed at assisting families in 2024. The credit should be primarily extended towards such individuals, as per the viewpoint.
Discussions around tax transparency are increasingly gaining traction. There is a growing demand from stakeholders for comprehensive data on corporate taxation, leading some firms to release detailed tax disclosure reports. More stakeholders, and the wider public, are eager to grasp a company’s tax strategy and its exact tax contributions. Such information can only be conveyed through their communication, posits Aidan Lucey, tax transparency operator at PwC Ireland.