No new takeaway for O’Connell Street and Ireland’s 1%

Dublin City Council has barred the owners of a new restaurant being planned for Ulster Bank’s former O’Connell Street branch from operating any takeaway food service. The pushback, Killian Woods reports, comes as a slew of new US takeaway brands, including Popeyes, Wingstop, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Wendy’s and Taco Bell, are expanding into the Irish market.

How much do you need to join the rarefied air of Ireland’s 1 per cent? Around €123,000, according to new research from a Berlin-based data firm. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports that the Republic also has the EU’s third-largest share of earners in the top 1 per cent across the bloc.

Relatedly, soaring stock markets and asset prices are making Ireland’s - and the world’s - rich even richer. Why is it, then, that most countries are yet to introduce a wealth tax? Cliff Taylor ponders the thorny policy questions facing Irish politicians in the face of an explosion in household wealth.

Meanwhile, a new survey from an online safety charity reveals that more than half of children under 12 have access to smartphones and other devices in their bedrooms overnight. Parents, it turns out, are equally guilty of being glued to their smartphones, with more than half of young people saying parents were on their devices all or most of the time they were with their children.

The National Treasury Management Agency ended bond market fundraising for the year on Thursday by selling 10-year notes at the highest interest rate since just after the Republic exited its international bailout programme. Joe Brennan has the details.

Barry O’Halloran has the latest on the long-running Dublin Airport passenger cap saga. On Thursday, the EU’s top court ruled that regulators must enforce the 32 million-a-year limit on passengers when allocating take-off and landing slots to airlines. However, the ruling will not affect a recent decision to add 29 new slots at Dublin Airport next summer.

A decade and a half after the property crash, the industry barometers of house prices have crept back into the mix, led by the State’s two main property portals: MyHome and Daft. In his column this week, Eoin Burke-Kennedy asks who’s right about what when it comes to house price data.

Brian Moynihan, the CEO of America’s second-largest bank, with $3.5 trillion of assets, has avoided directly challenging the current White House. That hasn’t spared the Bank of America boss from US president Donald Trump’s ire, however. In our interview of the week, Moynihan sits down with Joe Brennan for a wide-ranging chat about Trump, interest rates and AI.

Joe also reports that Kenmare Resources, the Dublin-listed minerals miner, has lowered the full-year production forecast for its most important product as it continues takeover talks with a company ultimately controlled by the Abu Dhabi royal family.

Revenue is looking at ways to reduce postal communications with taxpayers and expand the use of “robotics” and artificial intelligence to deal with queries. The tax authority is reviewing its postage practices, which cost it around €14.8 million in 2025, and looking to increase the use of its online platform to send out important tax documents to millions of taxpayers each year.

Johnny Sexton has been appointed as an adviser to the Johnstown Collection, the luxury hotel chain behind the Johnstown and Mount Juliet estates, as the group undergoes an investment of almost €40 million across its portfolio. Stephen Conneely has the details.

It’s tempting to wonder what the point of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council is if governments, time and again, quietly ignore its advice, writes Paul Colgan in Agenda. Still, there are some who believe that it can, and does, influence policy and that State spending would be higher without the body’s critiques.

Effective leadership depends less on who sounds like a leader than on the behaviours and skills they demonstrate, writes Margaret E Ward. When you think back over your career, which manager do you remember first? The boss who believed in you and gave you opportunities or the manager who thwarted and belittled you at every turn?

If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.