IRELAND IN LINE FOR BOOST OF UP TO €500M A YEAR FROM ECB STIMULUS - Ireland’s public finances will be boosted by up to €500 million a year under the European Central Bank’s €1.14 trillion stimulus to revive the euro zone economy, writes the Irish Times.
In a major intervention to spur growth and prevent deflation, the ECB will spend €60 billion a month from March this year until September 2016, buying up bonds issued by single currency member states. The scheme mirrors quantitative easing campaigns undertaken with some success by central banks in the US, the UK and Japan, but resisted in Germany over concerns that ECB bond- buying would ease pressure on countries to assert control over their public finances. Markets cheered the ECB intervention, which was bigger than expected. The euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar for 11 years, stock markets jumped and borrowing cost of euro zone governments declined to record lows. Irish 10- year bonds fell to a fresh low of 1.15% before rising slightly. The ECB will acquire large tranches of debt from major euro zone countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the aim being to redirect money invested in their bonds into bank lending and other investment in the “real economy”. Government sources said the package should have several benefits for Ireland. The sources said the weakening of the euro should boost Irish exports and tourism while the cost of bank financing should also fall, leading to more lending. A little more than €600 million a month will be spent on Irish bonds as part of the plan, in line with Ireland’s 1.16% share of the ECB’s capital.
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BLOW TO CORK AIR LINK HOPES - Hopes that the much sought-after Cork-Dublin air route could be reintroduced have been dealt a blow by Ryanair, which says demand probably would not be strong enough to warrant its reintroduction. The airline’s chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs said the improvement in the road network has had a major impact on the feasibility of the route and added that the company’s research indicates that not enough people would use it if it were reintroduced. His comments were echoed by Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary yesterday, who said that the biggest challenge facing Cork is the growth of Dublin Airport and the ease of access via the improved road network. A return of the route, which DAA chief executive Kevin Toland previously said could have a greater impact in reversing the fortunes of the struggling regional airport than any other measure, has long been sought following its withdrawal in 2011, says the Irish Examiner. Both Ryanair executives also highlighted Cork’s cost base as an obstacle to growth at the airport, with Mr Jacobs saying there needs to be “a big movement” for Cork to be competitive on existing routes. The Cork-Dublin route, which at its height carried half a million passengers a year, is seen as critically important to both the airport and the wider region, with Cork Chamber among the groups to have called for its reintroduction.
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ONLY ONE IN FIVE IRISH COMPANIES HAVEN'T SUFFERED DATA BREACH IN LAST YEAR - Irish companies are falling victim to data breaches more and more, according to new research from the Irish Computer Society. The organisation, which released the results of its annual survey into data protection within ordinary Irish companies, has found a rise in data breaches and external hacking attacks. Over half of Irish companies say that they have suffered a data breach in the last 12 months, with almost one in five Irish companies saying that they were the victim of some kind of malicious external attack, says the Irish Independent. Just one in five Irish companies and organisations now say that they did not suffer a data breach within the last year. The survey, which was completed by almost 200 firms, half of which employ over 100 people, reveals that one in three Irish companies has no corporate data breach policy and that almost half of Irish firms' staff are poorly trained for data breaches. Only two in five Irish firms have any internal sanctions for non-compliance with data protection rules. And most Irish companies have no guidelines on transferring data outside the country, despite a majority engaging in such transfers. However, the research shows that Irish companies' biggest threat continues to be "negligent employees", with one in five singling out bungling staff as the biggest issue they face in keeping sensitive information secure.
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SWEDISH MODEL SHAKEN AS PRIVATE JET SCANDAL SPARKS CORPORATE CLEAR OUT - The staid world of Swedish business was shaken on Thursday when a scandal over the use of private jets triggered one of the biggest corporate upheavals in the country’s recent history. Industrivärden, the owner of controlling stakes in companies including Volvo, Ericsson and Sandvik, and Handelsbanken, Sweden’s biggest bank and an Industrivärden holding, will both get new chairmen and chief executives under the shake-up, says the Financial Times. The jet scandal erupted after it emerged that wives and children accompanied directors on business trips abroad as well as to a hunting lodge owned by SCA, a paper and forestry company in which Industrivärden owns a large stake. Svenska Dagbladet, the newspaper which broke the story, reported that one unnamed person even sent a jet from the north of Sweden to Stockholm just to pick up his wallet, which he had forgotten. The affair has also shaken faith in the much-admired Swedish model of active ownership under which shareholders nominate board directors and help guide companies’ strategies. Industrivärden and the Wallenberg family foundations, Sweden’s two biggest holding companies, together control more than half of the market capitalisation of the Stockholm stock exchange.
