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GOOD EVENING
The 5 at 5
5 minutes, 5 stories, 5 o’clock…
EACH WEEKDAY EVENING, TheJournal.ie brings you five things you should know before you head out the door.
1. #FRANCE: French police are reported to be preparing to storm the apartment building where a man accused of killing seven people including three children in the southern city of Toulouse has been holed-up for most of the day. The suspect has been named as Mohammed Merah who has been linked to Al Qaeda.
2. #BANKING: AIB has said it plans to scrap free banking for customers from the end of May. In two months time, customers who do not have a cash balance of at least €2,500 in their account for the entirety of a three month window will face transaction charges.
3. #JOBSWATCH: Around 250 jobs have been saved in Carrick-on-Shannon as part of a takeover of the MBNA Ireland credit card business. Owner Bank of America has sold part of the business to a fund owned by Apollo Global Management securing the jobs in Ireland. The news was welcomed by Jobs and Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton.
4. #WIFI: Bus Éireann has announced a roll out of WiFi on 88 new buses from this week. A total of 23 commuter coaches operating in the Greater Dublin area are being given WiFi services with five new city single and double-deckers buses going into service in Cork and seven in Galway.
5. #UK BUDGET: The British chancellor George Osborne delivered his third budget today with corporation tax cut although still nearly twice what it is in Ireland. The Tory minister also introduced a tax credit on profits from video game and animation companies, potentially bringing home businesses that had relocated to Ireland in recent years. For the North, the funding for the Northern Executive remains roughly the same.
