“Brendan Comiskey didn’t fail and this wasn’t about failure. This was about a cover-up”

An analysis of the performance of Metropolitan Films, one of the country’s most commercially successful television and film productions companies, confirms that the industry is both highly cyclical and highly dependent on tax credits.

2020 was a mixed bag for the US vulture fund, with collections and valuations slowing down at some of the SPVs used to buy distressed loans here. Initial figures for 2021 show a clear bounce.

Described by Revenue as a “blatant misuse or abuse” of the tax code, a leveraged bond scheme gave rise to an inflated CGT loss of €34.6m for a husband and wife. But just how did it work? And why is the Revenue struggling to stop it?

Three years ago, the government moved to close off tax loopholes being used by institutional investors using Irish Real Estate Funds. New data reveals if the clampdown worked, and gives an insight into how they allocate their money.

Having raised €5m to date, the Dublin-based environmental data analytics start-up is about to add flood defence monitoring to its existing products monitoring the presence of contaminants in a range of situations. Its founder Stephen McNulty is on this week’s podcast.

Having last year closed a $45m series B, Irish biotech company Nuritas has revealed it is building its new North American headquarters in Connecticut. CEO Dr Nora Khaldi is also moving to the US to lead the strategic expansion.

Plans to develop a world-class film and TV studio park in west Dublin have been further stalled. US investors have secured a temporary injunction stopping Lens Media from moving ahead with the €26.5 million acquisition of the lands in Clondalkin.

Stark new data reveals that sitting tenants have seen rental increases of 40 per cent over the past decade, less than half the increase in the open market, while the average lease length has doubled over the last 15 years. It raises significant questions about the effectiveness of rent controls.

The hospitality veteran went bust last month with debts of over €13 million. He was bankrupted by Revenue, some of whose debts were mislabelled by an insolvency practitioner in a failed scheme to bail out the businessman.

Alan Holland’s sourcing automation firm Keelvar has just announced a $24m series B funding round. The former academic talks about entrepreneurship, US expansion plans, and whether his company is a potential unicorn.