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To get a mortgage in Ireland, you will generally need to follow these steps: decide if you want to use a broker to explore your options, choose a bank with a mortgage that suits your needs, hand over the paperwork requested and get an offer in principle, find a property within your budget, and agree a purchase price with the seller and choose a local solicitor who will help with the legal aspects of the purchase. Like most things in life the ‘devil is in the detail’ – so we would strongly recommend you consider using a mortgage broker who can hold your hand through the process, not to mind the volume of paperwork required. Today we would like to cover some of the main Support Schemes available to home buyers? The First Home Scheme Ireland 2024 is a First Buyers Grant that works as an equity scheme, while the Help to Buy Scheme is a tax refund scheme. It …

January is a month for minding money, one common practice is over paying on financial products. Today we will look at some financial protection products. Many mortgage holders are paying over the odds for mortgage protection — often because they just took whatever policy was offered by their lender. Let us start with the basics – what is mortgage protection? Mortgage protection is a type of life insurance that pays off your mortgage if you die or become ill. It is usually required by lenders when you take out a mortgage, except in some cases, such as if you are over 50 or already have enough life cover. In Ireland, there are different types of mortgage protection policies available, such as single, joint or dual. • A dual policy pays twice the amount of the mortgage if both partners die, • While a single or joint policy only pays once. You can compare the rates and benefits of different providers …

TWO Clare business owners are encouraging returned emigrants who are setting up a business, or those living abroad thinking of returning home with an idea they want to get off the ground, to get involved in a government backed programme. Back for Business is a development programme, funded by the Government’s Emigrant Support Programme, that was established to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among emigrants returning to live in Ireland. It is aimed at those who have lived abroad for at least a year and have returned in the last three years or those planning to return in the near future. It was launched last month by Colm Brophy TD Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and Diaspora and now the programme is looking for applications for the 2023 programme from those living or hoping to return to County Clare. There is no charge for those selected to participate and the closing date for applications is Thursday, January 12. Former participants …

ENNIS employer Ecolect Technical Services Limited has won a prestigious award at the 2022 Generation Apprenticeship Employer of the Year Awards, taking home a ‘pioneering micro-employer’ award at the ceremony. Seven businesses from around the country have been crowned Generation Apprenticeship Employers of the Year by Simon Harris TD, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in an awards ceremony which took place on Thursday, December 8th, 2022 in the Morrison Hotel, Dublin. Commenting on their award win, the Ecolect Technical Services Ltd Team, based on the Tulla Road, said, “Absolutely thrilled to be nominated for the award. Our apprentices are the future of our company and are key to its further growth and expansion” Founded in 2001, Ecolect Technical Services Limited are a leading provider of innovative mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering solutions. It provides services to customers across sectors including Data Centres, Life Sciences, Industrial, Commercial, Substations and Renewables and operate across Ireland, the UK …

A KILLALOE company has scored on the double by winning a Lean Leadership Award that brought extra cash of up to €150,000 into the company over an 18-month period. Thinking Toys was recently presented with an Award of Achievement in recognition of lean leadership at the 2022 Lean Business Ireland Awards. Implementing transformation change with stock management through a new Lean Management Programme to deal with an overstocking issue helped the company reduce their suppliers to 130 and product lines to 4,000, which cut the value of stock it held by 35%. Thinking Toys had grown from employing two people with ten suppliers and 200 products in 2004 to nine employees with 160 suppliers in 2020 across the world and 5,500 product lines. The family business was set up by Michael and Áine Conacur, inspired by their eldest child Ailis, who has Sturge Weber Syndrome and who had major brain surgery when she was two. The frustration and difficulties the …

TÁNAISTE Leo Varadkar was in Shannon last week for the official opening of the Future Mobility Campus Ireland in the Free Zone. It’s the country’s first full-scale development centre and test-bed for mobility technologies. In essence the facility exists to work on the development of driverless cars, air taxis and drones, as well as the air traffic technology to manage them. Addressing the attendance on the day Mr Varadkar spoke about the development of Ardnacrusha, and how that shows a history of innovation and vision in Clare, while he also spoke about the county’s future. “I think that first Government showed really enormous vision in making that decision, making that bet for Ireland that turned out to be the right one. “That was followed up by other innovations in this region, Shannon Airport, Duty Free and of course the Shannon Free Zone where we are now. This region has always been at the forefront of industrial innovation and that should …

AN estimated €5m concession contract to operate four restaurant, cafe and bar outlets is being put up for grabs at Shannon Airport. The airport is in recovery mode following the lifting of Covid-19 air travel restrictions and the new tender is projecting passenger numbers to increase more than three fold this year to 1.33m. According to the tender, the airport is projecting to return to 77pc of 2019 pre-Covid passenger numbers and the 1.33m passenger estimate follows 379,935 passengers at Shannon during the pandemic-hit 2021. The tender states: “SAA’s business strategy, which initially focused on stabilization during Covid, is now firmly in  recovery and rebuilding. SAA is committed to maximising all opportunities to build back stronger.” The new contract is due to commence in November of this year and continue for five years with a further option of a two-year extension. The Shannon Group is inviting tenders to operate a landside restaurant and bar currently trading as JJ Ruddles; an …

Three Ireland is to expand operations at its Limerick customer experience centre, with the creation of 175 new jobs over the next four years as the Irish office begins to export services to Three UK business customers for the first time. The 175 new jobs will include both full time and part time positions and openings across a range of job titles and experience levels in the B2B sector. The employment opportunities will range from Customer Care, Team Leaders, Operations and Management. The Limerick customer experience centre has a strong history in Castletroy, originally established over 20 years ago and currently employing close to 400 people. Given the skills, expertise and talent in the Limerick centre, it is well placed to advise international clients across a broad range of connectivity services including IoT, ICT products and cost management. The expansion to support business customers in the UK market is the realisation of a key strategic objective for the team in …