McKILLEN'S BLACKROCK LAND SWAP PLAN FALLS THROUGH - Developer Paddy McKillen jnr is likely to press ahead with plans for a controversial site on Dublin Bay even though a proposed land swap deal, involving the property, with Blackrock Bowling and Tennis Club has fallen through.
His father, Paddy McKillen, bought the 4.9-acre site next to the protected Booterstown Marsh on Dublin Bay’s seafront last autumn for about €1 million, making him the latest in a succession of owners. The property once belonged to Bernard McNamara, who wanted to use it as a helicopter pad, writes the Irish Times. One of the proposals for the site was that the McKillens would swap it with Blackrock Bowling and Tennis Club for its premises on Green Road in the south Dublin suburb. The club has residential - rather than recreational - zoning, making it potentially attractive to the developer. However, both sides are now understood to have gone off that idea, which was originally proposed to them by a third party. The bowling club’s board discussed the plan, but does not believe the Booterstown site is suitable. In any case, it has recently completed work on some of its facilities, including doing up its bowling green. “The directors discussed it but it did not go any further; it was only really the bare bones of a proposal,” said a source. Mr McKillen jnr is understood to be more interested in developing the Booterstown site. As a result, he is likely to go ahead with plans that include a museum, art gallery and restaurant modelled on his family’s chateau in France.
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REVENUE TO ADD 400 STAFF AS TAX TAKE TOPS €41 BILLION - Revenue is to take on an additional 400 staff by the end of the year as it scales up its regulatory and compliance capabilities and looks to maintain its strong performance over the past number of years. It is recruiting a broad range of roles including taxation and legal professionals, economists, data analysts, and IT experts. The Irish Examiner says that approximately 230 of the roles will replace retirees following a decrease in the Revenue’s workforce since the economic crash which has seen its workforce dwindle to staffing levels akin to 1975. “Additional staff will be used to increase Revenue’s competent authority resource as outlined by Minister Noonan in his ‘Road Map for Ireland’s Tax Competitiveness’, to deal with developments in international tax and to strengthen our investigative, audit, and compliance resource,” a spokesperson said yesterday. The announcement came as Revenue released its report for 2014 which showed that it recorded a near 10% increase in tax revenues last year. The taxman garnered €41.4bn in 2014 - an increase of 9.3% on 2013 - and represents the fourth successive year-on-year increase in returns to the exchequer. The pick-up in the residential housing market seen in the past 12 months was evident in a 26% increase in stamp duty.
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ALL ABOARD THE FIVE-STAR GRAND HIBERNIAN TRAIN - Ireland's own Orient Express will hurtle out of Heuston Station in August 2016 creating 50 jobs in the process. Booking lines for the country's first five star sleeper train, Belmond Grand Hibernian, opened Tuesday with Belmond Ltd receiving over 1,000 enquiries about the train to date. Prices aboard the Grand Hibernian will start at €3,160 per person for a two night journey and €5,420 per person for a four night trip, says the Irish Independent. The set price is all inclusive, covering meals, drinks, entertainment and excursions. Belmond Ltd, the company behind the world's most famous high end touring trains including the legendary Venice Simplon-Orient-Express and Belmond Royal Scotsman, acquired eleven Mark Three carriages from Iarnród Éireann last year. The carriages are in the process of being redesigned and refurbished at the cost of €9.3m and will create the ambience of a "country house on wheels".
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'FLASH CRASH' CHARGES SPARK ALARM OVER WEAKNESS OF US MARKETS - A UK trader accused of contributing to the 2010 “flash crash” in equity markets began a fight against extradition on Wednesday as US lawmakers pledged to probe a case which raises questions over the fragility of markets and financial regulation. Navinder Singh Sarao, 36, was granted bail of £5.05m in a London court as allegations that he played a role in triggering a dramatic plunge in equity prices revived anxiety in Washington over shortcomings in the workings of the world’s largest stock market. Sherrod Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, told the Financial Times: “It’s encouraging that the Justice Department and [Commodity Futures Trading Commission] are pursuing this case, but troubling that it has only come to light now with the help of a whistleblower who invested substantial time in putting the pieces together.” Richard Shelby, the committee’s Republican chairman, said the arrest of Mr Sarao “raises many questions that the banking committee intends to ask”. The arrest has refocused politicians’ gaze on the linkages between futures and equity markets and on regulators’ record. In particular, questions are being asked of the role of the CFTC, the lead US derivatives regulator, the self-regulated Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees cash equities.
