Business

The number of housing projects started in the first four months of 2015 have dropped by 51pc to 1,698 compared to the same period last year, while planning applications have gone up by 18pc to 4,602 nationally year on year, according to the National Housing Construction Index published by Linked2Plans. Danny O’Shea, managing director of Link2Plans, said this continued a trend from the start of this year. “Link2Plans considers the first half of 2014 to be very much an outlier in terms of construction activity on account of the structural changes in the market, which saw the introduction of new buildings regulations on 1st March 2014. “These one off changes…

Aer Lingus is to operate a new Cork to Düsseldorf service, which will operate twice weekly on Wednesday and Sunday from May 2016. Düsseldorf is located in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr region, Germany’s largest metropolitan area, with a population of about 11 million people. The news has been welcomed by Cork Airport, Tourism Ireland and Cork Chamber of Commerce. “We expect there to be strong demand for this route from both inbound and outbound passengers,” said Cork Airport managing director Niall MacCarthy. “We already have 50 routes from Cork Airport, making us the largest airport outside of Dublin, and this new service to Düsseldorf is further recognition of our…

Malin has bought a 38pc stake in Irish medical technology company 3D4Medical for US$16.4m. The deal also gives Malin a further call option to increase its stakeholding to 50pc. 3D4Medical, which was founded in 2004 by its John Moore, CEO, and Niall Johnston, director of business development,  specialises in the development of medical, educational and health and fitness apps for healthcare professionals as well as student and patient education. The company’s apps, including its flagship offering, Essential Anatomy, have so far been downloaded over 9 million  times globally. The apps use proprietary 3D technology to show the human body.  A number of them have been developed in collaboration with Stanford…

The world’s largest meat packer, Brazilian company JBS, has bought Moy Park in Northern Ireland from its owner Marfrig Global Foods for around US$1.5bn. Marfrig said the sale would enable it to significantly reduce its debt (currently at about US$5bn) and focus more intensely on pursuing growth opportunities – in particular expanding the food service business of Keystone in both Asia and the US. The transaction is subject to approval from authorities, including antitrust bodies in the EU, and is expected to be signed by the end of 2015. Headquartered in Craigavon, Moy Park is Northern Ireland’s largest private sector employer, with a total workforce of 12,000 people in Ireland,…

Evros Technology Group, previously known as HiberniaEvros, is to hire 100 people this year across its offices in Dublin, Cork, Waterford and Kildare. In operation 25 years, the IT infrastructure and support company currently employs 250 people in Ireland. The new jobs will be spread across a number of technology and administrative positions – half in its new 60,000 sq ft Cherrywood in Dublin HQ and the other half in the regional offices. Evros Technology group managing director Bob Murray said: “This is a major step forward for the company towards our goal of being the largest provider of IT managed services and systems integration in Ireland.” According to Murray,…

The value of construction projects started in the first three months of this year has fallen by 20pc to €1.69bn compared with the first quarter of 2014, according to the Building Information Index, which is produced by a team of researchers at Building Information Ireland (BII). Danny O’Shea, managing director of BII, said five of the seven sectors measured by the index recorded a fall. “The residential sector saw the most significant drop, falling from €874m in the first quarter of 2014 to €600m in the first quarter of 2015. “Education also suffered a major decrease, falling by 68pc. By comparison, there was a significant increase of 54pc in the…

Five North American companies and one European-based high growth company are creating 185 new jobs in Dublin and Wexford in sectors including medical devices and business analytics. A database technology company founded in Massachusetts in US in 2010, NuoDB, is to open its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) development centre in Dublin and a new office in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It intends to hire 50 developers, engineers and tech support professionals in Dublin over the next three years. Cloud management software company Artisan Infrastructure, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, is establishing its EMEA headquarters in Dublin, creating 30 new information technology jobs. With offices all over Europe and…

Rio de Janeiro-headquartered e-learning company Affero Lab is to locate its European operations centre in Dublin. The company, which plans to locate 40 “highly skilled” jobs at the centre, becomes IDA Ireland’s first investment win from Brazil. The centre’s main focus will be research and development. It will develop the company’s technologies in the adaptive learning, gamification, mobile learning and data analytics areas. The centre will also employ sales and support staff to support the company’s clients in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. “Affero Lab has identified Ireland as a leading innovation hub for e-learning companies and a source of first rate software and engineering skills,” said…