A private, low-key Irish investment company has seen off strong local, national and international bidding interest to acquire two Cork office investments, one let to Apple, the other to Trend Micro, in a deal worth close to €8 million.

The new owner of Sam McCauley Chemists which operates 30 chemists and an online store plans to aggressively expand the chain after paying around €50m for a significant majority stake in the firm.

THE chance to have Apple as a tenant in a Cork investment property sale will catch the eye and engage the interest of strong investors nationwide — as will the promised 10.65% net initial yield on offer in the case of two building sales valued at €7.25 million.

Blackrock Business Park, the former Motorola site in Cork’s booming Mahon suburb which last sold when vacated back in 2007 for €22m, has been put back for sale for €11.2m. 

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Private equity fund Carlyle Cardinal Ireland (CCI) has made its seventh Irish investment with the acquisition of AA Ireland for €156.6m.

Engineers are warning of up to three months of traffic disruption after unveiling plans to demolish and replace a defective road bridge on the boundary between Cork city and county.

Abtran lends a hand as their employees head into schools for a Literacy Support Programme in Sunday’s Well, writes Niall Murray, Education Correspondent

One hundred and thirty new jobs are being created in Cork in a customer service centre for Sky.

Concerns have been raised about the awarding of a €50m contract to run Irish Water’s call centre.

Carlyle Cardinal Ireland has made what is believed to be its biggest ever investment, in Abtran — a major employer in Cork and Dublin.

The Central Bank has spent €119m on professional fees since 2011, including expenditure of €27.55m last year.

Outsourcing firm, Abtran — which operates the helpline for the Revenue’s local property tax (LPT) — has received fees of almost €10m for providing the service since 2013.

Some 150 jobs are to be created with the expansion of two companies in Dublin and Shannon.

The student grants system that caused “chaos” when set up four years ago has lost so much money it would risk being closed down if it was a private company, the chair of a Dáil group has claimed.

Some of Ireland’s biggest employers have been written to by the Data Protection Commissioner in order to assess their compliance after a worrying trend by some employers to force staff and applicants for positions to access and reveal sensitive personal data under Section 4 of the Data Protection Acts held by the Garda Vetting Unit.

Bad planning, outsourcing core services with no contract, and inadequate staffing contributed to student grants agency SUSI’s disastrous first year of operations that cost €5.9m — more than three times its budget.

Households who refuse to pay Irish Water bills, which begin arriving today, will be pursued through the courts and have the debt removed directly from their payslips under measures to be signed off on by Cabinet this month.

Irish Water’s Cork call centre is set to hire an extra 350 staff to deal with the expected increase in calls once the utility issues its first bills next month.

Up to 350 new temporary jobs are being announced at Irish Water in Cork.

Outsourcing firm Abtran, which operates the helpline for the Revenue’s local property tax received fees of €4.65m for providing the service last year.

Material found at outsourced firm in returned application pack

The company handling customer queries for Irish Water has denied a report that a staff member was "rushed to hospital" after a customer pack including human excrement was received.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has confirmed that Cork-based firm Abtran was last year paid €3.58m inclusive of Vat for providing telephone call handling for the local property tax and household charge.

TWO office sites in Cork City and suburbs are competing to woo a new US FDI occupier — with the promise of up to 500 IT-related jobs.

A former employee of Abtran, operating the Revenue’s property tax helpline, has been ordered to obey the directions of the probation service for a year for inducing members of the public to give bank card details by deception.

A 22-year-old man who fraudulently obtained banking details from people seeking to pay their Local Property Tax has avoided a jail term for fraud offences.

A joint initiative between DCU, NUI Galway, UCC and UCD focusing on the data analytics called Insight, is hoping to create 300 jobs through 12 planned spinout companies.

A former Abtran employee operating the Revenue’s property tax helpline yesterday admitted charges of inducing members of the public to give bank card details by deception.

A former employee of Abtran, operating the Revenue’s property tax helpline was arrested yesterday and charged with inducing members of the public to give bank card details by deception.

People who don’t pay the water charge could face disconnection, Phil Hogan, the environment minister, indicated yesterday.

A small group of protestors has gathered in Cork city this morning, for the announcement of 400 new jobs at Irish Water.

Four hundred new jobs are to be created in Cork at a call centre for Irish Water.

Bord Gáis are set to appoint Abtran to run the new Irish Water call centre in Cork with the creation of 400 jobs by the end of 2016.

Revenue has asked Abtran, the company operating the property tax helpline, to conduct a full review of its recruitment policies after a staff member was suspended over alleged fraud.

A probe is under way into an alleged attempt to fraudulently use credit card details given to the local property tax helpline.

A Garda investigation is under way into alleged attempts by an employee of a Cork-based company to use the credit card details of a number of callers to the local property tax (LPT) helpline.

A worker on the property tax helpline has been suspended, amid allegations of unauthorised use of credit cards.

Fianna Fáil has queried how a company involved in the slow-moving Susi grants system — which have left some students still waiting for money — is now working on customer call services for the introduction of the property tax.