REVENUE STAFF SHARE €81,000 FOR GOOD IDEAS - Enthusiastic workers at Revenue shared special payments of over €81,000 last year in response to their good ideas about cutting waste and improving productivity.
In 2013, Revenue reintroduced a staff suggestion scheme (SSS) to encourage workers to look for new ways to reduce costs, improve productivity and eliminate waste. In recognition of the good ideas made, a Revenue spokeswoman said that some modest awards are made to recognise contributions, reports the Irish Independent. The SSS is one of three staff recognition schemes (SRS) and Revenue last year paid workers €81,167 in relation to 1,395 awards under the SRS. This followed a total of €96,666 made through 1,393 awards made under SRS in 2013. On the SSS, the Revenue spokeswoman stressed "the awards scheme is not a bonus payment scheme". "The scheme is a useful motivational tool in the current climate and the average award for individuals is very low - approximately €68 in 2013 and €58 in 2014," she added. Figures supplied by the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, show that the number of high earners at Revenue has decreased as a result of the provisions of Haddington Road agreement and senior officers retiring.
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HARDWICKE IN €19M CANAL DEVELOPMENT - Once one of Ireland's top property investment and development companies, Mark Kavanagh's Hardwicke Ltd is to re-enter the Dublin development market after an absence of 14 years to handle the construction of an office building at Clanwilliam Place in Dublin 2. Mr Kavanagh is also believed to be looking at a number of other potential projects, writes the Irish Times. The new seven-storey block with a glass façade and an internal floor area of 4,738sq m (51,000sq ft) will be more than three times larger than Kestrel House, a 1980s building overlooking the Grand Canal, which is to be demolished to make way for the new €19 million block. Kestrel House was bought in an off-market deal from quantity surveyors Bruce Shaw Partnership for around €10 million. Hardwicke has formed a partnership with Ardstone Capital, an independent investment management company, to get construction under way this summer with the intention of having the building ready for occupation towards the end of 2016. Hardwicke's reappearance on the construction front will be widely welcomed at a time when there are relatively few development companies with the resources or the necessary experience to embark on major office projects. There are already fears that a shortage of new office space in the Dublin area later this year could hamper direct investment.
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BARCLAYS AND RBS SPEED UK INVESTMENT BANK RETREAT - Britain's retreat from investment banking is set to accelerate as Royal Bank of Scotland aims to slash as many as 14,000 jobs in the sector and Barclays' chief executive says he has limited patience with the business. The moves underline how two of the UK's once mighty global investment banks are facing questions about their future, leaving the country reliant on foreign groups to provide access to capital markets, writes the Financial Times. "There will come a time when we need liquidity in [the UK] and we won't have a British broker-dealer so we will have to rely on JPMorgan and that is a problem," said Chirantan Barua, banking analyst at Bernstein. RBS refused to say how many jobs would be cut out of the 18,000 people who work for its investment bank as part of a drastic restructuring plan - dubbed Project Brown - it announced last week to shrink the business back to its UK roots. But two people familiar with the matter said RBS had set a target of cutting as many as four out of five jobs in the unit by 2019, while overhauling the back-office systems to automate them. A large proportion of the jobs RBS will cut are in the US and Asia. The bank declined to comment. On Tuesday, Antony Jenkins said his patience would be limited in waiting for a recovery of Barclays investment bank, which overshadowed strong performances from other parts of the group and dragged it to an overall net loss last year.
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INSURERS FACE 'HUGE' FOSSIL FUEL LOSSES WARNS BANK OF ENGLAND - Insurance companies could suffer a “huge hit” to their investment portfolios if meaningful action is taken to combat climate change, the Bank of England warned yesterday says the London Independent. Ahead of a crucial UN climate change summit in December, Paul Fisher said huge volumes of fossil fuel reserves could be left “stranded” if strong targets were agreed to limit the carbon dioxide emissions that cause climate change. Mr Fisher, the deputy head of the Bank’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), told an insurance industry conference this was because a huge portion of oil, gas and coal companies’ reserves would need to stay in the ground, dramatically reducing their share prices and, in turn, hitting investors such as insurance firms. “As the world increasingly limits carbon emissions, and moves to alternative energy sources, investments in fossil fuels - a growing financial market in recent decades - may take a huge hit,” Mr Fisher said. “One live risk right now is of insurers investing in assets that could be left stranded by policy changes which limit the use of fossil fuels.”
