The year Irish banks returned to some sort of health
The Irish economy too has been achieving a forward momentum of some scale, with GDP growth expected to reach 7%.
Even taking into account question marks over the reliability of GDP figures, given the high level of profit repatriations by multinationals, particularly in a once again buoyant pharmaceuticals sector, there is plenty evidence of economic revival.
But we have been here before and the big task in the coming year will be to ensure much of the ground gained is not thrown away.
The upcoming general election is already generating a gale of promises and the management of expectations could become a real issue, once again.
Employers in the public sector wonder whether they can hold the line amid signs of growing discontent among employees in the public transport and health sectors.
Strikes on the Luas and at Irish Rail look on the cards in the new year.
The banks displayed signs of a return to health. Bank of Ireland reported a drop of over 50% in its impairment charges in its interim results while impaired loans at AIB have fallen almost 30% since mid-2014.
There remains much work to be done on this front and while Bank of Ireland boss Richie Boucher claimed that growth in new lending had reached 50%, our lending institutions remain under a tight rein.
Mr Boucher’s team won few brownie points with their unveiling of plans to restrict cash withdrawals, yet more evidence of a dismissive attitude towards the elderly and less technology aware.
Tough new Central Bank guidelines ensured that the house price boom in the capital tailed off dramatically, as rental levels continued to roar ahead.
Late in the year, the Government did intervene in the market to ensure a freeze was imposed where rents have been recently increased — in some cases, the perverse outcome is that some landlords may have brought forward hikes ahead of implementation of the legislation.
The long building recession has resulted in a serious mismatch between supply and demand, with clusters of people often to be spotted outside properties across the city.
The second key Government response has been to relax building standards in an effort to jump-charge development.
The cranes have started to return in force to the Dublin skyline, particularly in the docklands and the commercial centre south of the Liffey.
The Central Bank’s new HQ has started to take shape and there is a new broom at the bank in the form of Philip Lane, an internationally respected young Irish economist.
His predecessor, Patrick Honohan, built good relations with ECB governor Mario Draghi and was an excellent communicator.
He will be a hard act to follow.
In March, Mr Draghi unveiled his quantitative-easing plan which has helped to push the euro down against the dollar and sterling, giving a welcome boost to Ireland’s trade dependent economy.
Plummeting energy and commodity prices ensured that inflation was kept in check.
Eurozone share prices rose, with smaller companies benefiting in particular. Dublin’s Iseq index performed particularly strongly, with gains of 30% from January to November.
Commodity stocks fared disastrously, with Britain’s steel and exploration sectors affected by big layoffs.
In August, investors had to endure extreme turbulence as a result of a sharp drop in confidence in the prospects of China.
Doubts remain and the year ended with the Chinese flexing their muscles in the south China sea and, with concern about a confrontation with the US navy, reminding people that geopolitical ructions could send waves crashing across the global economy.
The insurance sector had a tough year, with enforced rises in premiums in an effort to clean up balance sheets.
A former regulator, Fiona Muldoon, has been performing major surgery at FBD, while RSA was faced with a major washing of its dirty linen at the Employment Appeals Tribunal.
The tribunal awarded around €1.2m to Irish ex-CEO Philip Smith following a lengthy, strongly contested hearing. An appeal is due to be heard next month in the circuit court.
Meanwhile, compensation awards by some judges raised a few eyebrows in the industry.
Major changes were introduced into the employment rights arena with the passage of the Workplace Relations Act following a lengthy gestation period.
Hearings at first instance will now take place in private, with adjudication officers handing out decisions and with an enhanced role on appeal for a newly enlarged Labour Court.
The Equality Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal will cease to function once they have cleared their backlog of cases.
In the ‘ordinary’ courts, the Court of Appeal got down to work and the year ended with the appointment of Peter Kelly as president of the High Court.
Justice Kelly has not been slow to take on the executive arm of Government over the years, rapping ministers and developers and even threatening them with jail should they continue to fail to observe the law.
In recent times, the economy has been a two-speed affair, with Dublin roaring ahead.
However, recovery has fanned out to Cork, Galway, Limerick, and even Letterkenny, all beneficiaries of major jobs announcements.
The economy is now divided in three, with the capital in front and many smaller towns in the slow lane.
A tourism revival promises much, with 2m more visitors compared with the bottom of the recession.
The Wild Atlantic Way has been an unexpected success story, while the decision of the Government to cut the Vat rate on hospitality services to 9% has been vindicated.
Investment in nationwide broadband and flood relief has suffered as a result of the recessionary squeeze — shortcomings in flood relief were exposed by the recent burst of bad weather yet again.
The impact of the deficit in broadband provision is silent yet all the more real for that.
Poor connectivity and high hotel prices combined to prompt Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave to pull his gathering of techies out of Dublin, but the technology sector in general had yet another good year.
The only issue now is the country’s continued capacity to absorb more new projects. Cork benefited in particular from Apple chief executive Tim Cook’s recent announcement of extra jobs.
Signs of a topping-off in sales of Apple iPhones has led to some pause for thought, however.
In broadcast media, UTV’s Republic of Ireland station struggled amid signs of growing customer discontent while TV3 swooned into the arms of John Malone’s Liberty Global.
TV3’s chief executive David McRedmond announced his departure.
Digital devices continued to suck the air out of traditional advertising, but the high street has been enjoying something of a bounce, with the surviving bookshops seemingly returning from the land of the living dead.
The Irish film industry reorganised itself and, led by director Lenny Abrahamson and actor Saoirse Ronan, filmmaking is on something of a roll.
New studios in Limerick look set to join existing facilities in Bray and Ashford as activity reaches levels approaching full capacity.
Car sales are beginning to approach levels last seen during the boom with Volkswagen in Ireland managing to shrug off scandals that embroiled its German parent following exposure of the rigging of software programmes in order to meet environmental standards.
Scandal was also the order of the day in the City of London where HSBC was exposed as operating sophisticated tax minimisation activities on behalf of clients through overseas subsidiaries.
A big bet this Christmas was placed on Betfair chief executive Breon Corcoran, with his reverse takeover of Paddy Power getting the go ahead.
Sadly, the big bets of businessman Tony O’Reilly came home to roost — news of the bankruptcy of a man who symbolised Irish success since the 1970s gave people much pause for thought.
The business world in December lost Tony O’Brien, a former president of the employer group Ibec, and the man who headed up drinks group C&C for many years before leading its stock-market flotation.
Other casualties included Jim Slater, the one-time darling of the City of London, seen by many others as ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’, and colourful Las Vegas mogul Kirk Kerkorian.
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