The fallout from the Brexit vote continues – and continues to disproportionately affect Northern Ireland. The focus now is on how the intention to cut the UK’s corporation tax rate affects plans to reduce the rate in Northern Ireland to 12.5% from April 2018. George Osborne – who remains Chancellor of the Exchequer, at least […]
Brexit is a reality: let’s get on with dealing with its implications. Leave campaigners – notably our secretary of state Theresa Villiers – promised that Brexit would not lead to the creation of a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. We must take her and her colleagues at their word. But it is
Northern Ireland households will feel some gains as well as losses as the immediate impact of the Brexit vote is felt. First, the good news. Interest rates will stay low, perhaps even below than the current half a per cent base rate, as the Bank of England tries to stave off the potential economic
There was a horrible irony about the timing of Stephen Farry’s call yesterday to support our universities. “Higher education drives our knowledge economy by equipping our people with skills companies need to grow,” he said. Yet this was the same day that Queen’s University revealed it must lose 236 staff to balance the books. Ulster
We are, it seems, on the precipice of another house price boom. The Office for National Statistics reports that house prices in Northern Ireland rose by 7.5% in the last year, clearly moving towards boom territory. But if you look at the figures closely a different picture emerges. Northern Ireland was the only UK region
After years of lobbying, the devolution of Corporation Tax to Northern Ireland has arrived. Or rather, it almost has – subject to very important ‘ifs and buts’. The most important is that the political parties on the Northern Ireland Executive must resolve their differences on the budget, welfare reform and many other problems. As Northern
Less than a week before the announcement that Ballymena is to lose 900 jobs at its JTI tobacco factory, Belfast was celebrating the creation of an extra 807 jobs with accountancy firm PwC. The symbolism is obvious. It feels as if Belfast is getting all the new jobs. What is more, Northern Ireland’s once great industrial
That Ulster Bank turned a loss of £381m in the first half of 2013 into a profit of £55m in the first half of 2014 is simply explained. The bank has already written-off and written-down so many of its non-performing loans that the scale of these so-called impairments is now quite modest. Where the bank
Guardian24 is the trading name of Belfast-headquartered company Bluechip Technologies. It was formed in 1998 to provide call management software for call centres that operate on corporate telephone systems. A key development occurred in 2000, when the business developed the first lone worker support application, which has since evolved into what became the company’s
Rehab Studio describes itself as a “creative technology company”, which builds websites, online games and web apps to support innovative corporate advertising. It has several major corporate clients including Google and Red Bull. The company was founded in Belfast in 2005 by Tim Rodgers and Jurgen Prause. Since then the company has expanded substantially
Fortune favours the brave, so it is said. This is certainly the experience of the Holywood-based Aspen property group. While much of Northern Ireland’s construction sector has been destroyed by the recession, Aspen has thrived – by taking the courageous route. “We did very well during the recession,” says managing director Gilbert Yates, son
Julie and Kevin Hickey run their husband and wife business in the Sperrin village of Park, on the banks of the River Faughan. It is the type of idyllic setting that seems perfectly suited to the production of traditional cheeses – which is exactly what their business, Tamnagh Foods, now does. In addition to hand