Writing in the Irish Times recently, Feargal O’Rourke head of tax at PwC Ireland declares: ‘What can be said with absolute certainty is that every company within the charge to Irish tax pays tax at 12.5 per cent on their activities – that is a fact.’ (‘ Whatever way you look at it, Ireland is not a...

The annual Northern Ireland Economic Conference took place yesterday in Belfast. Typically it is one of the main annual events in Northern Ireland where senior policy makers, academics and business interests gather to debate and consider the major economic issues confronting us. While the balance of...

Ireland's labour costs in the business economy continue to be amongst the lowest in Western Europe. Labour costs differ from wages in that they also include other costs faced by employers such as PRSI. Therefore labour costs are a far more relevant way to compare competitiveness across countries...

The publication, recently, by the Central Statistics Office of results from their Quarterly National Household Survey for the year to June 2013 has provided a welcome respite to the generally negative employment news since the beginning of 2008. Employment is now increasing across most sectors and...

As we move towards another austerity budget (October 2013) it is useful to consider Government's choices in the context of the structure of earnings. Despite its relevance, limited attention tends to be given to the distribution of earnings and income in the formation of policy options and decisions...

In the context of the recent international financial crisis, one principally derived from the reckless speculative behaviour of numerous banking and financial corporations, the long-term hesitancy towards a financial transactions tax (FTT) tax has begun to thaw. Most recently the European Commission...