Potential home owners should not be waiting for further cuts in house prices, says CIF Head Tom Parlon, who says the construction industry can weather the current storm by refocusing on other projects.

Halifax launched a new 'Pink' credit card on Monday at its Eyre Square base.

ISME, the Independent Business Organisation, while welcoming the reduction in the inflation rate from 5.0 per cent to 4.3 per cent, has warned that the threat of inflation to Irish business was still to the fore, with the continuing high levels providing little comfort or respite to those in the non-sheltered sector.

SuperValu, Ireland's leading independent supermarket network, has announced that it now employs 1,040 people in Galway. The figures were revealed by Donal Horgan, Managing Director of SuperValu, at its national conference in Killarney, which was attended by over 600 delegates.

Home décor store Habitat has closed its outlets in the Republic of Ireland after falling sales and rising costs made it "impossible to trade" through its financial difficulties.

Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Eamon O Cuív has said the economic situation currently facing Galway and the country reinforces the importance of Ireland staying at the heart of Europe.

It was very much a case of 'as you were' in terms of ECB interest rate policy, following Thursday's May meeting of the Governing Council. Official interest rates were of course left unchanged at four per cent, as had been universally expected. And it also appears that the ECB's overall assessment on growth and inflation has changed little over the past month or so.

The deadline for companies to enter Yakult's Healthy Workplace Awards is fast approaching and time is running out for Ireland's healthiest workplace to win a prize worth €4,000.

More than 350 secondary school students from Galway and Leitrim descended on Sligo IT last week to learn more about good financial habits for life in the extended learning workshop, Bank Your Future, the unique national financial education initiative by Junior Achievement, generously supported by Bank of America.

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