Irish Examiner

'>Sales of RTE shows, ‘Taken Down’, ‘Hardy Bucks’ and ‘Operation Transformation’ last year contributed to RTE’s commercial arm increasing its pre-tax profits by 22% to €8.89m.

An online tutoring service, aiming to “level the playing field” for families who cannot afford grinds, is to put €40,000 in financial backing towards scaling up its operations.

Shell said the company had spent 10 years conducting in-depth research into decommissioning the Brent platforms.

The decline continues a downward trend since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016.

The AIB Brexit Sentiment Index reveals that half of SMEs in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have cancelled or postponed investment.

Rather than being in thrall to mobile international companies, Ireland should be attracting many more individual entrepreneurs and skilled people, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

Tympany Medical is using technology to help in surgical ear procedures, writes Trish Dromey

Fully-automated hotels in Japan and the US are using robots to replace porters and other staff servicing rooms but not everything is going to plan, writes John Daly

'>Last week the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proposed breaking a taboo in international corporate taxation that countries only have a right to tax activities from companies that have a physical presence on their soil.

'>After the most nondescript budget I can remember, we are now left to take stock of where we are.

'>The wave of business uncertainty caused by fears that the UK will crash out of the EU has now reached Irish construction, with output contracting last month for the first time since the economic recovery got underway in 2013.

'>Economists are divided about when the next US recession will arrive, but they largely agree on this: The country will need to fight it with a massive fiscal programme, and be ready to swallow deficits that may eclipse the trillion-dollar shortfall run by the Trump administration this year.

Facebook faced substantial criticism over its plans to create a separate, private currency system to allow cross-border payments.

'>Nike is ending its Oregon Project supporting elite track athletes after a top coach was banned for violating anti-doping rules in a scandal that has engulfed the sport’s biggest corporate backer.

'>Surging optimism for a breakthrough Brexit deal also sent the value of the two main Irish banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland surging by an unprecedented €1.5bn by last night.

The White House said the two sides made some progress in discussions.

Sales of Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano have rocketed 220% since the higher charges were announced.

Deals worth a total of up to £86.6 million have been made with four companies.

Positive signals from the British Prime Minister and others has ‘sent sterling stratospheric’, analysts have said.

MP Margaret Hodge called the amount ‘outrageous’.