IBEC is forecasting strong growth in the Irish economy in 2015. The employers group says it expects GDP to grow by 5.4 percent - up from its previous estimate of 4.8 percent at the end of last year.
It also says unemployment will fall below 9 percent during the year.
Chief Economist at IBEC Fergal O'Brien, says favourable exchange rates, quantitative easing and lower oil prices are why they've decided to revise their growth forecast:
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Former Anglo Irish Bank chairman Sean Fitzpatrick is due to go on trial today. The 66-year-old of Whitshed Road, Greystones is accused of failing to disclose bank loans.
Sean FitzPatrick is charged under the Companies Act with failing to disclose the true value of loans worth around €139m.
The loans were allegedly given by Irish Nationwide to him or people connected to him on dates between 2002 and 2007.
The former Chairman of Anglo Irish Bank is listed to go on trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court this morning.
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AIB is twice as likely as Bank of Ireland to pursue customers who are in debt - it is the most aggressive bank in Ireland when it comes to moving against debtors.
A report from The Irish Times has examined all summary judgement cases filed since the beginning of 2015, and found that AIB is by far the most aggressive bank in the State when it comes to taking legal action against debtors.
The bank has filed at least 275 summary judgment actions since the start of the year - this is more that 40 percent of the overall total filed by all banks in the State.
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The share price of Smurfit-Kappa, the Dublin-based international paper and packaging group surged by nearly 12 percent to €29 last week, boosted by rumours that its Tennessee-based competitor, International Paper, was about to launch a take-over bid.
Speculation increased over the weekend when it was reported International Paper had appointed Deutsche Bank as advisers and would pitch its proposed bid at €36 per share, valuing Smurfit Kappa at over €8bn.
Market commentators point to Stock Exchange rules which would require Smurfit Kappa to make a statement to the markets if it was aware of any concrete developments that might impact on its share price - and this has not happened despite a number of rumour-fuelled days.
Smurfit Kappa’s shares have risen by nearly 70 percent over the past twelve months but still trade at a slight discount to peer companies such as International Paper.
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One of the country’s longest-running and most complex pension wrangles and one that threatened industrial action at both Aer Lingus and DAA over the past five years, seems to have been finally resolved.
Results of ballots held by five trade unions were completed prior to the weekend and showed a strong vote in favour of the DAA’s proposals including an 86 percent 'yes' vote by SIPTU members, the largest union in the company.
Aer Lingus employees, who were also members of the IASS pension scheme - which has now been frozen - voted to approve the airline’s pension resolution proposals late last year.
Following the vote, DAA will transfer up to €72m in lump sum contributions to employee and former employee members of the IASS scheme. It’s been reported that some former employees of both Aer Lingus and DAA, who are deferred members of the scheme, plan to take legal action against aspects of the proposed resolution.
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Greek politicians resume debt negotiations later today. Over the weekend the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (the Sunday edition of FAS) published a story which cited high ranking eurozone officials who said that they were shocked by the lack of progress made at last week's meetings between Greek and eurozone officials.
One official said that Greece is "like a taxi driver" - constantly asking for money - and that the country would soon run out of funds. Other officials were less pessimistic, and said that it is likely that a compromise will eventually be reached.
The Greek finance ministry responded with a statement on the matter: “When the readers of FAS read the minutes … the newspaper will have difficulty justifying its headline and the content of its article. Such reports undermine the negotiation and Europe.”
Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis has said that he hopes that a preliminary agreement can be reached between Greece and its creditors before the Eurogroup meeting of European finance ministers on April 24th.
