Personal Injury/Medical Negligence Law Firm/Lawyer of the Year

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CALLAN TANSEY SOLICITORS

JOHAN VERBRUGGEN, CALLAN TANSEY SOLICITORS

DAMIEN TANSEY SOLICITORS LLP

GERAGHTY & CO, SOLICITORS

HBMO SOLICITORS LLP

LAVELLE PARTNERS MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE TEAM

MARTIN KERRIGAN, BERWICK SOLICITORS

McCARTHY & CO LLP

McMAHON GOLDRICK SOLICITORS

MICHELLE HAYES, HAYES SOLICITORS LIMERICK

RICHARD GROGAN & ASSOCIATES

THOMAS DOWLING, HOGAN DOWLING McNAMARA SOLICITORS LLP

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September 19, 2021

October 3-4, 2021  Vol 34 No 39  businesspost.ie  Price €3.70

After 16 years in power, Angela Merkel is soon to step down as German chancellor. But who will be her replacement, and what are the wider implications for Europe as it grapples with a host of troubling crises? Property Editor: Tina-Marie O’Neill Gardening The natural power of wildflowers page 8 Commercial A community business hub in Co Kerry page 12 PropertyPlus

Tensions mount as government parties split over road projects in €165bn NDP

September 19, 2021  businesspost.ie  property@businesspost.ie ● FF and FG claim victory over the Greens on the National Development Plan ●Greens claim that certain road projects may not be funded despite being included

BY MICHAEL BRENNAN

POLITICAL EDITOR

Squaring Merkel’s circle: what next for Europe? Situated at the western end of Brookfield Terrace in the Co Dublin suburb, ‘identical twins’ 17a and 17b Ventura Mews are on the market offering a double dose of design flair Two perfect peas in a pod on a quiet Blackrock roadFor Sale by Private Treaty Henry Grattan’s Maynooth Road, Celbridge, Co Kildare The bright rooms benefit from full-height windows and wide plank Scandinavianengineered oak floors; below: the main bathroom with bath and overhead shower

Nos 17a and 17b Ventura Mews on Brookfield Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin; above: the open-plan kitchen/dining/family room; below; the south-west-facing landscaped gardens are fitted with evening mood lighting Nos 17a and 17b Ventura Mews on Brookfield Terrace, Blackrock, Co Dublin; above: the open-plan kitchen/dining/family room; below; the south-west-facing landscaped gardens are fitted with evening mood lighting

All three parties expect tensions on road projects to re-emerge to page 2

Varadkar seeks new tax break boost for those working at home

BY MICHAEL BRENNAN

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar is seeking to allow remote workers to claim back up to 30 per cent of their annual heating and electricity bills in a budget tax break which could cost the exchequer €8 million a year. There was unprecedented growth in remote working during the pandemic, as firms closed their offices to comply with public health bills while they are working from home. The current limit for such expenses is 10 per cent of electricity and heating bills. His department has estimated that the change could add up to €8 million a year for 400,000 remote workers if they claimed the relief for two days per week over the average of 46 working weeks in a year. Varadkar is keen to give workers the option to continue working at home or to out on average to 42,000 remote workers last year under the 10 per cent allowance. It comes at a time of rising electricity and gas prices due to global energy cost rises. Varadkar hinted at the measure last week when he told reporters that he wanted to see a remote worker being able to defray more of the cost of their utility bills against their tax. The Tax Strategy Group has stated that this boost to

A rift among the coalition parties delayed the signing-off on the €165 billion National Development Plan and could lead to further tensions amid claims and counter claims about the future of major road projects, the Business Post has learned.

Eamon Ryan, the Green Party leader and Minister for Transport, argued vociferously during the talks on the National Development Plan (NDP) for some existing road plans which had not secured planning permission to be dropped.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are now claiming victory over the Greens after getting all existing road projects that were in the last National Development Plan (NDP) carried the Minister for Finance, has confirmed that he will examine measures to promote remote working in the budget.

People already have to supply copies of their electricity and heating bills to claim back 10 per cent of the cost via the Revenue app. There is a higher e-working expense for broadband bills, where 30 per cent of the cost can be claimed back.

However, workers can only claim back expenses for

over into this one, as well as a number of new road projects. However, the Green Party is privately insisting that many of the listed roads will not actually be built by the plan’s end date of 2030, because there is also a commitment to spend twice as much money on public transport as roads in both the new NDP and the programme for government. The Greens are also pointing to a further commitment in the NDP that every road project seeking the go-ahead will have to be evaluated in terms of its impact on the state’s target of reducing climate emissions by 50 per cent by the end of the decade.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan, the Minister for Transport are due to put on a united front when they launch the NDP at Páirc Uí Chaoimh stadium in Cork tomorrow.

But all three parties expect the tensions over road projects to re-emerge when further decisions have to be made on which ones to fund during the coalition’s remaining time in office.

There were tense negotiations between advisers to all three parties last week, as well as a bilateral meeting between Ryan and Michael McGrath, the Minister for Public Expenditure.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael backbenchers were concerned in particular about the N24 Limerick to Waterford dual carriageway, the N4 dual carriageway from Mullingar to Longford, the Ardee bypass in Louth and the Adare bypass in Limerick.

But both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael insisted that the Green Party had to stick to the commitment in the programme for government to maintain all projects listed in the previous 2018 NDP.

A Fianna Fáil source said there had been “tough discussions” about road projects with the Green Party. “It was

Tina-Marie O’Neill

Property Editor

Question: what’s better than a slick, A-rated, designer home with a low maintenance, high-impact rear garden and offstreet parking on a quiet residential road in Blackrock, Co Dublin? Answer: two of them. With good quality, well-located, energy-efficient, new-build properties thin on the ground at the moment, it’s fair to say that no sooner has an estate agent pitched the ‘For Sale’ board up and packed away the hammer and nails, they’re digging them out again to plaster the sign with a ‘Sale Agreed’ notice.Buyers in search of the perfect abode in the trendy south Dublin suburb of Blackrock, take note. If you’ve been pipped to the post recently and you’re scrambling to keep ahead of the pack, you could be in luck, with not one but two bites of the cherry available in this case. Brookfield Terrace is a quiet residential road that comprises a long-established terrace of redbrick cottages on one side and, opposite it, a row of stylish mews houses built at the very rear gardens of the classic Georgian homes that make up Prince Edward Terrace along Carysfort Avenue.At the western end of Brookfield Terrace are two brand new, identical twin homes, 17a and 17b Ventura Mews. Cutting-edge 21st-century spaces, the homes were built by James Frisby, son of long-established Waterford developer Noel Frisby and a director of the family’s Frisby Homes group.The A2-rated, LA-style units were architecturally designed and extend to Exceptional craftsmanship and style are employed throughout to create bright, fluid and functional internal layouts By Barry J Whyte It is a photograph that instantly catches the eye: Angela Merkel at the G7 conference in 2018, leaning over a narrow table with a white tablecloth, her palms laid down flat, her face bearing an unmistakable expression of weariness and frustration.

to page 2 Extensive licensed premises on a site of 0.92ha / 2.3acres

CONTACT: JOINT AGENTS

Bagnall Doyle MacMahon

John Ryan T: 087 2435072 E: johnryan@bdmproperty.ie PSRA: 003571-004676

190 square metres of living space each. From the front kerb, these homes demonstrate great attention to detail with their paved driveway with offstreet parking for two cars complete with an electric car port, the tidy redbrick bin bays and landscaped planted borders, clever exterior lighting and eye-catching cut granite facades punctuated with full-height glass windows on both levels. Beyond the front door, the attention to detail comes to the fore in terms of the choice of high-quality materials and fittings used, and the exceptional craftsmanship and style employed by Bushell Interiors to create bright, fluid and functional internal layouts. The bright entrance hall is naturally lit via a full-height window, with frosted glass to ensure privacy. From the threshold, wide plank Scandinavian-engineered oak floors run throughout the ground floor, up the stairs and across the first floor accommodation, adding to the crisp, fluid feel of the house. The ground floor hall leads to a bright lounge overlooking the front through a full-height window and fitted with a raised focal point fireplace enclosed in glass with faux logs and a flatscreen TV O’Neill & Co Darac O’Neill T: 087 9656063 E: darac@oneillandco.ie PSRA:001224-001205

INFLATION ONCE AGAIN Dan O’Brien on the dilemma facing the European Central Bank Page 23

to page 2 FAST AND FURIOUS

Formula 1 star Max Verstappen profiled Page 21

‘The ESB and Eirgrid should have seen this coming’

Eddie O’Connor on the energy crisis, his new business, and why he has no plans to slow down

Interview, page 16

Fergal Phillips State to class data centres as ‘strategic infrastructure’

BY DANIEL MURRAY AND ROISIN BURKE

The government is set to press ahead with new regulations to designate data centres as “strategic infrastructure”, despite the unfolding energy crisis facing the country, the Business Post has learned.

The move, which will grant data centre developers access to the fast-track planning process, comes after Eirgrid warned last week that the electricity system is stretched beyond capacity due to the “unprecedented” growth in demand from the facilities, as well as the wider electrification of the economy.

The Planning and Development Act allows for strategic infrastructure to access a “special planning application process”, where plans are submitted directly to An Bord Pleanála rather than CONNECTED YOUR MONTHLY GUIDE TO TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS AUGUST 2021 businesspost.ie businesspost.ie

A REDESIGN FOR LIFE MIKE PETTINELLA’S PLAN TO CHANGE WHERE WE LIVE

Social anxiety The true impact of misinformed media Postscripts Letters from the John McGahern archive

local planning authorities. In 2018, an amendment to the legislation was introduced by the government to include data centres as strategic infrastructure for the first time. However, the relevant sections of the Act have not been commenced yet. Magazine September 19 2021 FOR LIFE

A spokesman for the Department of Housing said that Section 49 of the Planning Act would be activated, but that a date had not been set.

“Due to other legislative priorities within the department the commencement of this provision will be considered at an appropriate time,” he said. anxiety As previously reported by the Business Post, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told Amaof misinformed media zon, the US tech giant, that the government would seek John McGahern archiveto “streamline” the planning and judicial review process-

PLUS THE END OF OS Is the operating system becoming redundant? WHY START-UPS STALL How bright ideas don’t always pan out always pan out DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Building on what we’ve learned TRANSFORMATION we’ve learned

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