Former Ibec boss Julie O’Neill has warned that it is too soon to start reversing pay cuts imposed during the recession, because the recovery in the economy is not strong enough.
Ms O'Neill is now the head of the global operations for rare-drug producer Alexion, she warns that wage rises would hurt the country's competitiveness.
Irish Times quotes her as saying: “I think we got to a very good space between 2008 and 2012 with the sacrifices that people had made, and I would like to think we have learned the lessons of that.”
Adding: “I’m not as close to all the data as I was, but have we seen the productivity enhancement that was expected that were the quid pro quo for the return of pay cuts?”
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While Ireland is a sports-mad country, and we will host the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup, research suggests that we are underachieving in the area of sport tourism, and could be losing out on as much as €450bn per-year.
Sports tourism is catching up and growing at a rate of 14 percent per year, compared to 5 percent growth in the broader tourism sector.
Ireland lags at 68th place in terms of attracting sports tourism. Mike Laflin of Sportcal, suggests that the Government needs to compile a 10-year plan to grow the area:
"The irony is that Ireland is one of the world's most passionate sporting nations, has excellent infrastructure and is incredibly good at hospitality - yet it is underachieving."
These comments came at The European Sport Tourism Summit which is co-organised by former Irish rugby captain, Keith Wood.
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Ladbrokes landlords say that the struggling bookmaker is offering “derisory” compensation to walk away from leases as it restructures its business.
The betting group hopes to close up to 60 of its 196 shops in Ireland as the company goes through examinership.
Tony Sexton let a premise to the company in Cork, he says that it is offering between €12,000 and €24,000 to surrender a lease with €467,500 due in rent over the next five years.
Another landlord has told the Irish Times that it could end up receiving as little as €6,000 as Ladbrokes surrenders a lease that is worth €275,000 over five years.
Letters from Ladbrokes Ireland say that it will pay rent due until July 29th or the end of the examinership, if that is at a later date.
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Shares in the owners of the popular mobile game Candy Crush fell more than 14 percent in after hours trading after it announced a profit warning.
King Digital, the London-based company that owns the Candy Crush brand, said it expected currency fluctuations and the absence of new game releases would hold back its earnings in the current quarter to about half a billion dollars – still a sizeable sum - but below market expectations.
The company said sales were lower for its Candy Crush Saga and other more mature games, an indication to investors that players are moving on to other games from competitors.
