'Good news story' as Irish economy expands despite new threat of Omicron restrictions   

The Government has the money to fund measures to help hospitality businesses should they face further restrictions this Christmas, Ibec said

Senior economist Jim Power: Up-to-date exchequer and unemployment figures show economy continues to recover.

Both multinationals and households helped drive the economy in the third quarter, official figures show, and up-to-date tax revenue returns and a fall in unemployment show that the strong recovery remains in place despite concerns over Covid variants, economists and business leaders say.

New CSO figures showed that mostly thanks to the exports of multinationals, that GDP in the first nine months increased 14.5% from the same period last year when the pandemic first raged, and was also 21.7% bigger than in 2019 before the onset of the crisis.