Poor information and murky bidding are depressing the number of homes sold in the Republic, Barry O’Halloran reports. In a new report, property website MyHome, which is owned by The Irish Times, and Bank of Ireland blame the Republic’s opaque system for buying and selling homes for the low number of properties coming to market.

Meanwhile, new research from the Economic & Social Research Institute indicates Northern Ireland’s economy has continued to underperform the Republic’s in key areas like national and household income, but it is growing at a faster pace than the United Kingdom.

Speaking of Britain’s economic woes, John FitzGerald writes in his latest column that Rachel Reeves’s late November budget made the classic mistake for a relatively new government of postponing difficult decisions to later in its term of office.