Did you ever consider using an app on your phone to apply for a mortgage? Well, it may not be exactly that simple but Revolut’s pending arrival in the Irish home loan business does look like injecting some of the company’s flair for simplicity. App-applications, if you will, are to be supported by staff but Joe Heneghan, chief executive of Revolut Europe, tells Joe Brennan the process can certainly “be made a lot slicker”.

Airbnb has taken some flak here and abroad over its supposed impact on the availability of longer term rentals. Interestingly, a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) tempers these ideas, claiming it – and let’s not forget other actors in the short term lettings business – is not responsible for Ireland’s ongoing rental crisis. Eoin Burke-Kennedy looks at what is, according to the report, which does not entirely absolve Airbnb of responsibility.

Retail and hospitality is not the first corner of life one thinks of when considering defamation claims. But it is a problem. According to the Irish Small and Medium Enterprise Association (Isme), vexatious defamation claims against staff members – for example in alleging false shoplifting accusations – can cost up to €50 million a year. It has asked Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan for certain provisions in a forthcoming reform of the law.