Business body ISME has lashed out at suggestions that employers will have to pay women full pay for 20 weeks maternity leave.

FLIGHTS across the country ground to a halt yesterday affecting up to 20,000 passengers and landing airports with a logistical nightmare after a strike by air traffic controllers.

BUSINESSES could be forced to close permanently if insurance companies use the flooding crisis as an excuse to raise already high premium rates, it has been claimed.

More people are leaving Ireland than arrive for the first time since 1995 as unemployment passed the quarter of a million mark, it was revealed today.

OFFICE clerks were in receipt of the highest workplace compensation payouts last year — netting an average of €38,285 for accidents on the job.

Business groups are calling for urgent Government action to tackle rising energy costs following a sharp jump in the inflation rate last month.

The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises has claimed Ireland would have negative inflation if it weren't for stealth taxes and charges being imposed by the Government.

Charges imposed by local authorities are "strangling the life" out of small businesses, Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (ISME) boss Mark Fielding said today.

WAGE bills at Irish Small and Medium Enterprises increased by 6% in the last year, well ahead of inflation and more than twice the increases in wages in the eurozone.

IRELAND needs foreign workers to fill the labour shortage in the services and agricultural sectors, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (ISME) association insisted yesterday.

THE main financial institutions, including AIB and Bank of Ireland, have finally reacted to pressure from politicians, businesses and customers by dropping their mortgage interest rates.

BUSINESS organisations have warned that Britain’s decision not to join the euro could threaten thousands of jobs.

Taking the uncertainty out of people’s long-term financial future, or at least giving them the opportunity to make real provision for it, is something practical which the Government has come up with in their plans for an innovative pension scheme in the new year.

BUSINESS leaders predict another gloomy year for companies.

Irish Small and medium enterprises are warning that the downturn in the economy will worsen unless the issue of costs is tackled speedily.

Government ministers have agreed to attend briefing sessions countrywide to explain the Nice Treaty to Irish businessmen.

IRELAND is one of the most corrupt countries in Europe according to the latest report from an international watchdog.

THOUSANDS of contract workers are to get the same benefits as permanent staff under a radical shake-up in employment law.

POSTAL deliveries in small communities across the country were delayed again yesterday morning on the second day of industrial action by members of the Irish Postmasters Union.

While many people in England are keen to wave their green, white and orange tricolours to spur on the Republic of Ireland, the Irish are less keen to cheer for their English cousins.