Ryanair today issued an “apology” to David Begg, Head of ICTU and a non-executive director of Aer Lingus Group PLC. In an interview on Matt Cooper’s The Last Word programme last evening, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary mentioned that Mr Begg as a non-executive director of Aer Lingus was enjoying an non-exec directors fee of €75,000 which is more than twice the average industrial wage (€30K).

 After a rebound in May, the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the Eurozone decreased in June.

Lenders are cutting off more home-equity lines of credit and limiting new ones. These cutbacks are crimping homeowners’ plans for costly improvements and dinging the remodeling industry.

In the period 2004 to 2006 inclusive, over 47% of enterprises in Ireland indicated that they were active innovators. Almost 57% of industrial enterprises were classed as innovation active while 41% of service enterprises were innovation active.

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) has today directed Eircom to reduce the current monthly wholesale price for Local Loop Unbundling - LLU - Line Share charged to other operators from €8.41 to €2.94 - a reduction of 65%.

Ryanair, this morning announced that Sean Coyle, its Director of Scheduled Revenue, has resigned to take up the position of Chief Financial Officer in Aer Lingus Group plc in which

Bank of Ireland’s Dan McLaughlin, who as recently as last month was forecasting two ECB - European Central Bank - rate cuts in the second half of 2008, has reversed course and now accepts that the bank is set to raise its benchmark rate to 4.25% on July 3rd.

Bank of Ireland’s Dan McLaughlin, who as recently as last month was forecasting two ECB - European Central Bank - rate cuts in the second half of 2008, has reversed course and now accepts that the bank is set to raise its benchmark rate to 4.25% on July 3rd.

The UK GDP - gross domestic product - in volume terms rose by 0.3 per cent between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, the Office for National Statistics said today. This is revised down from the previous estimate of 0.4 per cent. The level of GDP is 2.3 per cent higher than the first quarter of 2007.

Today, June 27, 2008, Bill Gates transitions from his day-to-day role at Microsoft to focus more time on his work with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates will remain Microsoft’s chairman and will be involved in select projects based on direction from Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer and the leadership team.