CONTRACTOR REFUSES TO WORK ON CLERYS REDEVELOPMENT - The Irish Times reports that building contractor Lambstongue has refused to work on the redevelopment of the Clerys building in Dublin unless its new owners meet the 460 workers who lost their jobs after it was taken over.
Clerys closed suddenly last year with the loss of 467 jobs when the Natrium consortium bought the store’s owner OCS Properties.
That company recently applied to Dublin City Council for permission to redevelop the building.
The paper writes that it emerged over the weekend that Lambstongue, a contractor specialising in the conservation and restoration of historic windows, refused to get involved in the project unless Natrium met with the workers who lost their jobs when the original store closed.
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RECORD YEAR FOR PATRICK GUILBAUD RESTAURANT - Ireland's most celebrated restaurant is enjoying its best ever year since it opened 35 years ago, according to the Irish Independent.
Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud is Ireland's only two Michelin star restaurant, and restaurateur and co-owner Patrick Guilbaud said that the last three years for the business have all been record-breaking.
The restaurant's financial performance in 2014 and 2015 beat previous highs, and 2016 is better again, he said.
Accounts show accumulated profits at the business increased €120,236, going from €444,295 to €564,531 in the 12 months to the end of August last.
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CATTLE GLUT SET TO RESULT IN PRICE PRESSURE – The Irish Examiner writes a glut of cattle at the year-end will lead to pressure on prices, it was predicted at a meeting of the Dáil select committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
However, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, said many live export markets are open including Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Serbia, Algeria and recently Turkey.
“We need to be careful not to talk down the price of cattle”, he said.
Mr Creed accepted that open markets do not mean that cattle will move because a whole series of variables needs to fall into place.
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WALES TO FOLLOW SCOTLAND BY ENDING RIGHT TO BUY COUNCIL HOUSES - Wales will join Scotland in scrapping the right for council tenants to buy their homes, unwinding one of the most famous policies of Margaret Thatcher’s era – according to the Financial Times.
The paper writes that since Thatcher handed over the deeds of a Milton Keynes council house in 1979, roughly 2m homes have moved from the state to private hands.
But even as the Conservative government expands the scheme in England, the devolved administrations of Scotland and Wales are halting Right to Buy after 37 years, arguing its cost to social housing supply has been too great.
Council tenants in Scotland lost the right to buy their homes on 1 August, while the Welsh National Assembly will bring forward legislation within the next year to end the scheme.
