
Liffey Valley Shopping Centre landlord not required to have Covid cover for restaurant tenant, High Court rules
Mr Justice Barry O'Donnell found the claim by Elite Gastrobars Ltd that the landlord's obligation to insure under the terms of the lease cannot be understood as extending to an obligation to provide cover against the type of business interruption caused by the Covid restrictions.

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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Concern over future of planned €300m Wicklow film studio
Concerns have been raised about the future of a €300m film studio planned for Greystones in Co Wicklow because three years after the project was launched, there has been no sign of progress. Locals say there's a lack of information about what's happening to the site, and expressed concern about the €24m of taxpayers money committed to the project. They say if the media campus, which was expected to create 1,500 jobs, is no longer viable, the land should be used for other business purposes. Plans for state of the art studio and production facilities on the 44 acre site were unveiled to much fanfare in 2022, promising to build Ireland's largest tv and film campus, which was to have begun operating in 2024. A consortium called Hackman Capital Partners took a lease on IDA land for the Greystones Media Campus for 999 years at just under €600 a year Louise Gaskin, Chair of the East Wicklow Business Network, says her members are concerned about the lack of progress on the site and the "void" of information about the project. "It would bring a lot of community employment and it would bring for businesses locally, huge economic development. "Lying idle, it's becoming an ugly site, overgrown, just lying there doing nothing. "First of all we were being told it was about the actors strike going on. Then we were told it's commercially sensitive. Then we're getting blanks. "No one's coming back with information. So who has the information? Someone has to know something." Ms Gaskin said that - if there are questions about the viability of the project - she would like to see the lease agreement revoked and the land put to other business use. Since the launch of the Greystones Media Campus three years ago, planning permission has also been granted for a large media campus in South Dublin called Dublin Fields. However, those in the industry say that the facilities at Greystones are still badly needed. Larry Bass, Founder and CEO of ShinAwil Productions, says the lack of studio space in Ireland meant that his company had to build a new studio to film Dancing With the Stars when it returned after Covid-19 lockdowns. He said that, despite global uncertainty and the threat by Donald Trump of tariffs on the industry, Ireland's film industry personnel remain in demand, but the lack of studio space is a barrier to attracting productions here "Apple, Amazon, Netflix, the BBC, the big American networks, these studios will all still, thankfully, be creating new shows. "We're an English language country, we've got a fantastic crew base. "It has evolved from, maybe five or six thousand people working in the industry 20 years ago to over thirty thousand people, highly skilled, highly sought after. "All we need is the raw material, the place, to build. And you know, this has never been a truer statement. If you build it, watch them come." The Department of Finance said that while investment is likely to be on a phased basis, it can't say how much of the €24m committed to the Greystones Media Campus has been spent to date. It also says that the current Minister has not had any engagement on the project from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund or the consortium behind it, Hackman Capital Partners. A spokesman for the consortium said that they will make a statement on the project in the coming months.

The Journal
14 hours ago
- The Journal
An Post sales just topped €1 billion - so why does it want to cut services?
Paul O'Donoghue THE HUMBLE POSTAL service has been a fixture of Irish life for generations. That now seems at risk. A major row last week over the future of An Post grabbed news headlines – including claims and counterclaims over the financial health of the organisation. Around the time when the postal service was due to appear before an Oireachtas committee, the An Post CEO said a minister leaked information from Cabinet. Meanwhile, rumours swirled of an organisation in a bad economic position. Very exciting stuff. But when you look past all the heat and noise, one key point emerged - An Post wants to cut mail delivery days. The details still have to be ironed out. But reports suggest mail would be delivered on fewer days per week as a way of cutting costs. However, this report emerged at the same time as An Post confirmed fairly encouraging numbers for 2024. Last year, sales at the organisation topped €1 billion for the first time ever, up from €922 million in 2023. It also reported a profit of €5.6 million, compared to a €20 million loss the year before. So if the company is growing and profitable – why does it want to cut mail delivery days? Shifting mail habits The simple reason – delivering traditional mail, such as letters and postcards, every day of the week isn't particularly lucrative anymore. Mail volumes are falling – with a wealth of communication options such as phones and email, people don't use letters as much as they once did. An Post reported that mail volumes fell 7.6% in 2024. Maybe a one year decline of about 7% doesn't sound particularly big? But the problem is the long-term trend. Say a number drops by 7% each year for a decade. After 10 years, it will have roughly halved. And mail volumes have been falling for longer than that - go back to An Post's 2010 annual report , and it also reported a 7% drop in mail volumes. Advertisement The point being – Irish people send far fewer letters now than they did 10 or 20 years ago. Because of this, there's less mail revenue for An Post. This has been somewhat compensated for by the rise in parcel deliveries from people shopping online, which has boomed since Covid. An Post reported that parcel deliveries jumped by 12.6% in 2024. Which comes back to why An Post wants to cut mail delivery days. It wants to focus more on the side of its operations which is growing and makes more money – parcels. Not the part which is shrinking – letter delivery. Cutting costs The logic of delivering mail on fewer days is to minimise costs. For example – say it costs An Post €500 to send out 1,000 letters in a day (these numbers are pulled out of the air for illustration purposes). If it delivers letters five days a week, it spends €2,500. If it could deliver all those letters in four days instead, it only costs the organisation €2,000. And the same number of letters get delivered. An Post alludes to this in its 2024 annual report, saying customers are 'demanding reliability over speed'. This also means there is logic to An Post's decision to recently raise stamp prices , even as mail volumes fall. Delivering higher-priced mail on fewer days makes more financial sense than delivering lower-priced mail every day. In tandem with this, the organisation will increasingly focus on its growing parcel deliveries. International trend This proposal to reduce delivery days is not unique to An Post. Postal services across the world are looking at similar measures in the face of falling traditional mail volumes. In New Zealand, the state postal service only delivers three times per week to urban areas, and five per week to rural addresses. Last year, New Zealand's government proposed reducing this even further , to two days in urban centres and three in rural areas. Again, to cut costs. The organisation also plans to have parcels and mail delivered by the same person. Denmark has taken things even further again. PostNord, the country's state-run postal service, will cease all letter deliveries by the end of 2025 . The country's Transport Minister not-very-reassuringly reassured people they will still be able to send mail via the 'free market'. Related Reads War of words breaks out on the airwaves between An Post boss and a minister — what's going on? The announcement came in the same week that Germany's Deutsche Post announced it will cut 8,000 of its 187,000 workforce . Why are all these countries doing this? Postal services tend to be state owned. With the fall in mail volumes, the postal services often start making financial losses, even with the growth in parcels. Once losses start mounting, the choice for governments is either to subsidise/invest in the service, or cut it. And many are choosing to cut. Some insight into the numbers was provided earlier this month by the UK's Royal Mail. While the body is privately-owned, it's dealing with the same issues as the state-owned postal services. Ofcom, the UK's postal watchdog, has given it the all-clear to cut mail deliveries for 'second-class' letters to every other weekday and not on Saturdays. It said doing this would reduce Royal Mail's costs by at least £250 million a year – a significant amount for an organisation which only recorded an operating profit of £149 million in 2023. An Post future To bring this back to An Post. The €5.6m profit it made this year might sound good. And it is, for an organisation operating in a very difficult market. But given its sales of €1 billion, An Post has a profit margin of less than 1%. That's a very slender buffer which could easily be erased by any number of economic shocks. Ofcom's figures give some indication of the financial benefit of cutting mail delivery days. So it's easy to see why An Post would want to follow suit. It's also worth noting that a report from Grant Thornton just a few months ago suggested that the post office network needs funding of €15m annually over the next five years , up from its current €10m per year. If it doesn't get it, there are warnings of widespread post office closures. While An Post reported good numbers in 2024, its long-term future is still uncertain. So management wants to put it in as secure a financial position as possible. Now, are the proposed changes good for An Post customers or workers? Probably not. Consumers will get a reduced service, while employees face delivering the same volume of mail on fewer days. But while An Post is publicly owned, it operates as a business. Given that, its proposals are very much in line with global trends. There's an argument that An Post should be run more as community service, delivering mail every day, even if it doesn't make the best business sense. However, that isn't how the company is set up now. Until its operating mandate changes, An Post will aim to run itself in a way that puts it in the most secure financial position possible. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal


Irish Independent
16 hours ago
- Irish Independent
Rising food prices are not overinflating supermarket profits, says bank
There are growing calls for a probe into supermarket profits, fuelled by concerns over the rising cost of groceries. Grocery prices have increased by more than a third in the last four years, forcing many families to spend an additional €3,000 a year on household essentials. Many question where the extra money being paid for their food is going. Owen Clifford, head of retail sector at Bank of Ireland, said food prices had increased significantly following the Covid pandemic, but added the rate of increase over the period remained below the European average. He noted the Irish market was unique, with a significant portion held by family-owned retailers under the SuperValu, Centra, Eurospar and Londis brands. While there were exceptions, Mr Clifford said the percentage of revenues these food retailers typically retain as profit was around 2pc and 3pc in the Irish market. There wasn't any evidence of excessive pricing or inflated profit margins The figure demonstrated 'the fine margins in which these businesses operate'. 'Bank of Ireland data confirms that the profit margin generated by these family owned retailers over the past year has remained consistent with historical performance while maintaining significant employment and investment in local communities nationwide,' he said. 'This data aligns with a report by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) issued as recently as June 2023, which stated there wasn't any evidence of excessive pricing or inflated profit margins across the Irish grocery sector.' Musgrave, one of the country's largest food wholesalers and owner of the SuperValu and Centra brands, recorded a profit of €103.9m in 2023, with an operating profit margin of around 2.4pc. ADVERTISEMENT The figures do not account for the much smaller, independent, family-owned retailers that own and operate most SuperValu and Centra stores. Tesco Ireland results for the year ending February 2024 show its after-tax profit rose by 10pc to €94.7m. Its operating profit margin was 3.7pc, down from 4pc the previous year. Mr Clifford said it was essential for family owned retailers to maintain their margins to meet consumer expectations regarding standards and product ranges in stores. 'Rising food prices are understandably a very real concern for families 'Having met over 150 retailers across the country in recent months, I can confirm that balancing value for customers while delivering margin that sustains their business in a competitive market remains a key focus,' he added. 'Rising food prices are understandably a very real concern for families nationwide. 'However, as always, a nuanced/balanced, evidence-based approach is required when evaluating the root cause of same.' Mr Clifford cited several reasons for rising food costs. They include higher global commodity prices for wheat, sugar and cocoa, depressed harvests, increased overheads for retailers, global trade uncertainty, and rising farm-gate prices across beef, dairy, and poultry. Recent figures from the CSO show the Agricultural Output Price Index rose 20.8pc in the 12 months to March this year. The most significant increases were in cattle (+40.4pc), milk (+17.6pc) and sheep (+4.3pc), while decreases were recorded in potatoes (-9.3pc) and vegetables (-1.6pc). Junior enterprise minister Alan Dillon asked the CCPC last week to look at supermarket mark-ups, which would give an insight into the profitability of firms and the level of pricing power they hold. Currently, supermarkets are not obligated to publish their profits. Denis Drennan, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMS), claimed retailer margins were 'as opaque as the farmer margins are transparent'. We now pay less than half of what our parents paid for their food As reported in the Farming Independent, Teagasc's National Farm Survey revealed that average farmer incomes rebounded last year, but were still generally low. Average family farm income rose by 87pc to just under €36,000 in 2024. Worryingly, the figures showed nearly 60pc of the country's farms are not economically viable. Mr Drennan said anxiety over rising food costs was not due to any recent 'inexplicable inflationary surge', but the fact that people had become used to underpaying for their food. 'As a matter of record and as a percentage of disposable income, we now pay less than half of what our parents paid for their food,' he said. 'It's not as if people are now over-paying for their food, it's that for decades now they have been under-paying for food, so being asked to pay the real costs — environmental and economic — is coming as a bit of a shock.'