{"id":217943,"date":"2025-12-06T04:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/217943\/"},"modified":"2025-12-06T04:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T04:12:13","slug":"crh-damages-bill-will-hit-services-says-finnish-town-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/217943\/","title":{"rendered":"CRH damages bill will hit services, says Finnish town \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A near \u20ac10 million compensation bill a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/crh\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/crh\/\">CRH<\/a> subsidiary is due from a Finnish town will hit education, childcare and other services, its council claims.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A Helsinki court recently ordered the town of Karkkila to pay CRH subsidiary Rudus \u20ac9.5 million following a dispute over a quarrying permit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The compensation amounts to half the town\u2019s tax income in a year, according to the council, which paid Rudus the money immediately after the court\u2019s ruling. Barry O\u2019Halloran reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A group of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/credit-unions-explore-central-treasury-function-to-unlock-99bn-mortgage-and-sme-lending\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/credit-unions-explore-central-treasury-function-to-unlock-99bn-mortgage-and-sme-lending\/\">credit unions<\/a> and two representative bodies are taking the first steps towards creating a centralised treasury function for the sector that they say will help unlock \u20ac9.9 billion in mortgage and small business lending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The initiative, which is being spearheaded by five credit unions along with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/irish-league-of-credit-unions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/irish-league-of-credit-unions\/\" target=\"_blank\">Irish League of Credit Unions <\/a>(ILCU) and the Credit Union Development Association (Cuda), is a significant step for the industry after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/central-bank\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/central-bank\/\" target=\"_blank\">Central Bank of Ireland<\/a> announced landmark changes to the credit union lending framework earlier this year. Ian Curran has the details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Nearly half the Irish population rely on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/nearly-half-population-now-reliant-on-private-health-insurance-as-claims-soar\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/nearly-half-population-now-reliant-on-private-health-insurance-as-claims-soar\/\">private health insurance <\/a>while the cost of private claims has risen by a third since the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">These were among the findings of new report on the extent of private health insurance in the Republic commissioned by Insurance Ireland from consulting firm Milliman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The report found that 2.5 million people (46 per cent of the population) availed of private health insurance last year. Eoin Burke Kennedy reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Occupational healthcare provider <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/medmark-to-form-20m-occupational-health-group-with-acquisition-of-blackwell-associates\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/medmark-to-form-20m-occupational-health-group-with-acquisition-of-blackwell-associates\/\">Medmark<\/a> has acquired Belfast-based Blackwell Associates to enter the Northern Irish market.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, creates one of the largest occupational health groups in the country with a combined revenue for the all-Ireland health group in excess of \u20ac20 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Medmark works with public and private sector organisations to deliver workplace medical assessments, employee wellbeing services to more than half a million employees. Hugh Dooley reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/could-sweden-be-about-to-take-irelands-crown-as-the-silicon-valley-of-europe\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/could-sweden-be-about-to-take-irelands-crown-as-the-silicon-valley-of-europe\/\">Gothenburg<\/a> was a ship building town right up to the 1980s. Today though, it is a much changed place. Dubbed Sweden\u2019s \u201csecond city\u201d \u2013 a moniker that is resented locally \u2013 it is playing a key role in the country\u2019s efforts to dethrone Ireland as the Silicon Valley of Europe. Colin Gleeson reports in Agenda from a city that is transforming itself at a rate of knots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">US economist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/economy\/2025\/12\/05\/how-economys-dr-gloom-became-dr-boom\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/economy\/2025\/12\/05\/how-economys-dr-gloom-became-dr-boom\/\">Nouriel Roubini<\/a> &#8211; aka Dr Gloom &#8211; won his reputation back in the mid-2000s for correctly predicting that a giant housing bubble would soon engulf the global financial system, a notion that Wall Streeters dismissed as alarmist. Now he is predicting, says Eoin Burke-Kennedy in his column, against the grain, that productivity gains from AI technical advances will see US growth rise from an average of 2 per cent to 4 per cent by the end of this decade in spite of tariffs. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe may be the newest brand in the market, with a fresh and innovative approach, but we\u2019ve actually got over 200 years of health insurance market experience between us,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/level-healths-jim-dowdall-there-is-unfinished-business-in-the-health-insurance-market\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/05\/level-healths-jim-dowdall-there-is-unfinished-business-in-the-health-insurance-market\/\">Jim Dowdall, chief executive of Level Health<\/a>, in our weekly interview slot with Joe Brennan. The company also includes chairman Oliver Tattan, chief financial officer Stephen Loughman and chief commercial officer Ruth Bailey. \u201cOur view is that there is unfinished business in the health insurance market.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If you\u2019d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to <a href=\"https:\/\/theirishtimes.lt.emlnk1.com\/Prod\/link-tracker?redirectUrl=aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuaXJpc2h0aW1lcy5jb20lMkZuZXdzbGV0dGVycyUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2UlM0ROZXdzbGV0dGVyJTI2dXRtX21lZGl1bSUzRGVtYWlsJTI2dXRtX2NvbnRlbnQlM0RSU1MlMjUzQUlURU0lMjUzQVRJVExFJTI2dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduJTNEYnVzaW5lc3NfdG9kYXlfZGlnZXN0&amp;sig=4kSj6MVtJhDySXD8zno7jMoXwZGc1dpLM3xhR9Fc9b5k&amp;iat=1673852841&amp;a=%7C%7C89275494%7C%7C&amp;account=theirishtimes%2Eactivehosted%2Ecom&amp;email=Dc0R66saiYNu2sbROXCOD2QOP8ZXmRzMvz3Yw%2BcA7gI%3D&amp;s=0d5371d23ecde798f8f0f88cc635413b&amp;i=21237A21683A12A963031\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On the Money<\/a>, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A near \u20ac10 million compensation bill a CRH subsidiary is due from a Finnish town will hit education,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,959,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-217943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-business-today","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115670675999987027","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}