Authors: Valeria di Cosmo and Muireann Á Lynch
In the electricity sector, there are two different markets: the wholesale (or spot) market, in which electricity generators generate and sell electricity at a new price every half hour, and the retail market, in which electricity supply companies sell electricity to the final consumers.
Supply companies tend not to change the price they charge their consumers very frequently, and so these companies typically enter into longer-term ...
Authors: Louise Kelly, tax partner and Andrew O’Reilly, R&D Tax Credit manager, Deloitte
In this article, we will discuss the tax changes announced by Budget 2015, with a particular focus on the Research and Development Tax Credit regime.
In drafting Budget 2015, the Department of Finance had to take account of a changing international tax landscape. During 2014, the focus on tax planning techniques used by multinationals has continued to intensify. Meanwhile, the OECD’s Base ...
Author: Kenneth L. Mitchell, BEng, HDip, MSc CEng, MIEI
At a glance, the debate on water fluoridation appears pretty one-sided. In one corner, we have national and international researchers, dentists and public health experts. In the other, we have libertarians, alternative health practitioners and conspiracy theorists. Yet recently, five councils have passed motions calling for the forty-year practice to end. Why?
For a start, these motions were preceded by one-sided ...
Author: Dr Paul Deane, Environment Research Institute, University College Cork
On Christmas Day last year, as people were sitting down to dinner, a high-pressure weather system was slowly moving over Ireland, causing temperatures to drop and wind speeds to reduce to an almost calm. Over half a million households were heating their homes with natural gas, while the electricity system called on gas-fired power plants and electricity imports from the UK to meet the bulk of demand in the ...
Author: David Smith, associate, EC Harris
Cautious optimism, often used by economists and politicians alike to describe the revived optimism in a faltering economy, is an appropriate term to describe Ireland’s outlook for short- to medium-term forecasts. The debt-to-GDP ratio is reducing, while Ireland’s access to global markets and growth forecasts all suggest a positive outlook for Ireland’s economic revival. However, the economy can only grow so far until the need for investment ...
Author: Conal Henry, chief executive officer, enet
In 2004, iPhones, netbooks and Twitter had yet to make their debut but, crucially for Ireland, some 28 cities and towns had started to ‘light up’ their Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs). enet has managed these world-class networks of fibre-optic cable for over a decade, on behalf of the State. While the company now employs over 60 staff, in the beginning there was a core group of dedicated ten telecom pioneers.
Today, the State’s ...