Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan has said that he hopes to see a response from banks "within weeks" as he begins two days of talks with Ireland's lenders to discuss the pricing of their variable mortgage rates.
The banks are under pressure to pass-on a series of interest rate cuts by the ECB that should affect 300,000 variable rate customers.
While tracker mortgage customers have seen the benefits of ECB rate cuts - most variable customers have not. Mr Noonan is reported to be under pressure from Fine Gael backbenchers to get tough with the banks.
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Greencore, the publicly-quoted convenience food company has reported a 9.5 percent increase in operating profits for the half year to the end of March, to just over £39m sterling. Greencore, though Dublin-based is quoted on the London stock exchange.
Group sales increased by nearly 5 percent in the same period to £615m.
The former sugar company, which is now focussed on supplying convenience meals to the UK and US markets says it continues to expand its Northamptonshire plant – the largest sandwich-making facility in the world and completed construction of a major new ready meals facility in Rhode Island.
Detailed planning is also underway on a new facility to be built in Washington State on the US west coast which will be completed this time next year.
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Mobile telecommunications group, Vodafone has announced a 6.9 percent drop in earnings before tax and interest to £11.9bn for the year to the end of March.
Group revenues rose by 10 percent in the same period to £42bn.
Irish investors will be most interested in the group’s dividend – the overall dividend per share is up 3 percent at 11.22 pence per share.
In a statement the Vodafone board said it intended to grow dividends per share on annual basis.
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As the Greek saga rolls on, it looks like June will be a key-month in this process. Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis appeared on Greek television last night and said that the country is "very close" to an agreement.
This sentiment was echoed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who said "we are now at the final stretch before striking a mutually beneficial agreement, after long and painful negotiations."
European Union Economic Affairs Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici added that an agreement is "not there yet" and that the issue of the country's liquidity is "obviously tense" and that both sides are running out of time to reach a deal.
Based on two IMF leaks, it appears that the country will struggle to meet its repayments to its debtors during June without additional bailout finding.
Mr Varoufakis again ruled out the possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone.
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Spotify, the leading music streaming service in Europe and North America has announced a new partnership with Starbucks.
“We’re really making the baristas the D.J,” Daniel Ek, chief executive officer of Spotify said - chains will now allow individual baristas to choose and curate playlists.
The coffee chain announced in March that it will no longer sell physical CDs.
Spotify premium subscribers will also be able to earn "stars" that can be used through the Starbucks Rewards loyalty programme.
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The Times, London reports that eurosceptic business leaders are likely to follow the lead of Lord Bamford, JCB's owner-chairman who has called on the UK to leave the EU.
The paper spoke with Peter Hargreaves, the co-founder of financial advisors, Hargreaves Lansdown who said, "I think that there will be a lot more speaking out now. People are getting fed up with being told what to do. We can get out of the EU and do our own deals with countries."
