The US dollar surged and the yield on US government bonds jumped on Friday after bumper US jobs data combined with surging tech profits effectively banished fears the world’s biggest economy was facing possible recession.
Irish stock market-listed insulation maker Kingspan paid just over £4m (€4.7m) of an out-of-court settlement for victims of the Grenfell Tower disaster, which saw 72 people killed in a huge fire at a London tower block in 2017.
Irish houses and apartments are bigger, have higher specifications and are built to higher environmental standards than in Britain and Northern Ireland, making them more expensive.
The value of Irish property deals collapsed to the lowest level since 2013 at the end of last year as US, German and other foreign buyers who have dominated the sector for a decade sat on their hands.