The Government is to hold a special Cabinet meeting today on the issue of mortgage arrears.
It had been expected that a package of new measures would be agreed by Ministers at yesterday's meeting, but a special meeting may now be held today to finalise and agree new measures.
Issues such as an overhaul of the mortgage to rent scheme and appeals of insolvency service decisions are understood to be included in a package of measures.
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A record number of professional job opportunities were recorded in Ireland during April. Employment agency Morgan McKinley says that some 13,445 professional vacancies arose during the month.
Karen O'Flaherty, Morgan McKinley's chief operations officer said that she expects this trend to continue, the report identifies "finance, HR, IT and supply chain" as the most active sectors.
These jobs are becoming less reliant on the capital, Ms O'Flaherty says "this uplift continues to spread beyond Dublin, with the manufacturing and agri food industries driving job creation in the West and Midwest regions."
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Shares in Ryanair rival, EasyJet nosedived by 10 percent yesterday after the low-cost airline revealed that strikes by French air traffic controllers had knocked £25m off its profits and that summer bookings are flat compared to last year.
Investor nervousness despite the fact EasyJet reported profits for the first half of the year of £7m, for the first time in more than 10 years.
Other issues affecting the airline’s performance included the impact of the German Wings crash on customer sentiment – though EasyJet did not specify how much – and greater pressure on fares due to lower oil prices and increased competition from Ryanair on services to larger European airports
Ryanair’s share price also fell yesterday by 3 percent to €10.90
Interestingly, the Aer Lingus share price continued to edge upwards on market expectation that government is close to making a decision on the IAG bid. It closed 3c higher at 2.40.
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Greece's standoff continues with worries about the country's liquidity being commented on by both sides. Greece has already said that it could run out of money during the next two weeks - and leaks from Athens say that the country tapped into emergency IMF reserves to make its repayment to the institution yesterday.
The European Commission has weighed in on the situation, it says that there is "still a lot of ground to be covered" before an agreement can be reached between Greece and its international creditors.
The Commission's vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis said, “We expected to finalise technical negotiations at the end of April. Unfortunately this has not happened.”
He continues, “There is still a lot of ground to be covered and because of the liquidity situation ...there is every reason to speed up these negotiations. The institutions are certainly ready to do so and to achieve progress as quickly as possible.”
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AIB continued its legal battle in the Commercial Court yesterday to secure as much as possible of the outstanding debts it's owed by former millionaire business, Tony O’ Reilly.
The Court was told, that following the sale of assets such as Mr O’ Reilly’s residence at Castlemartin, Co. Kildare and shares in Independent Newspapers, and with the interest that has accrued, that debt stands at €15.2m.
The court granted AIB a conditional order giving it a charge over €2.7m worth of shares held on his behalf in the Dromoland Castle Holding Company, that owns the luxury hotel in Co Clare.
AIB said it had only learned on April 20th of a proposal by Mr O’ Reilly to agree a voluntary resolution of his outstanding debts to a range of international banks, under the law of the Bahamas where he has been a resident.
It emerged from this process that Mr O’ Reilly’s shares in the Dromoland Castle Company were secured to the New York based bank, BNT Mellon – AIB now trying under Irish law to secure prior security on these shares.
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Verizon Communications is to buy AOL in a deal valued at close to $4.4bn (€3.9bn) - the offer of $50 per share represents almost a 20 percent premium on the current value of AOL shares.
AOL owns a number of prominent online publications, including The Huffington Post and TechCrunch.
The company has had operations in Ireland since 1997, it currently employs 200 people.
