As published in The Sunday Business Post 2018. The rise of the gig economy has seen many people who work for one employer classed incorrectly as independent contractors. Happily, this is changing. Employment relationships can be neatly divided into two categories – the employee and the independent contractor. The legal distinction between the two is […]

As published in the Sudnay Business Post, August 2018. Employment disputes are a fact of life – people being people, tensions inevitably arise in the workplace and these can cause significant difficulties for employers and employees alike. In any business, there will always be a (hopefully limited) cohort of individuals whom the employer will not […]

Partner Simon O’Neill has been working closely with Community Finance Ireland to introduce Ireland’s first Shariah compliant financing product Developed for Community Finance Ireland (CFI), An Irish charity dedicated to providing loans to community groups which has extended an excess of EUR90 million (US$105.41 million) to over 500 organizations, has added a Shariah compliant financing […]

As published in the Sunday Business Post, 5th August 2018. Ireland, like many of our EU neighbours, includes among its myriad of immigration schemes a residence-by-investment programme for high net worth individuals. The Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP) was only introduced in 2012 and is still in its infancy. As it grows and expands, it learns. […]

The European Union (Planning and Development)(Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2018 will come into operation on 1 September 2018. They seek to transpose EIA Directive 2014/52/EU and to give further effect to the 2011 Directive.  They do so by way of extensive amendments to existing planning legislation and a timely consolidation of the legislation would be […]

As published in the Times, July 2018. We keep hearing it: Brexit means Brexit. A hard Brexit. A soft Brexit. A cherry-picked, fantastical Brexit. Perhaps increasingly likely, a no-deal Brexit. This mess may be of the UK’s making, but borders are not impervious to spilt milk. Souring as it flows, that mess will meander its […]

Early December 2017 witnessed the reveal of FIDIC’s newest versions of its 1999 Red, Yellow and Silver Books, otherwise known as the Rainbow Suite. This Second Edition of the 1999 version was cited by FIDIC as bringing in wording which would ultimately enhance the certainty and transparency of the standard provisions. Chief among these is […]

The claimants in this challenge were the incumbent providers of public health and nursing services. When the contract came up for renewal the Council awarded the contract to another provider (Virgin Care). When challenged, the Council sought to have the automatic suspension on concluding the contract lifted. The Court examined the principles for granting such […]

The Employment Permits Section of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation is currently experiencing a backlog of employment permit applications and has apologised to customers experiencing difficulties as a result of the delays. The current processing times for standard Employment Permit applications is over thirteen weeks, up from the typical six to eight weeks, […]

This briefing looks at two property-related enactments from Finance Act 2017 that can result in a tangible financial return where the provisions have application. The first provision relates to an existing exemption from capital gains tax on the disposal of certain property (commonly referred to as the 7-year exemption). The exemption was modified to provide […]