On 17 June 2019, the Irish Government published the '2019 Climate Action Plan' and an 'Annex of Actions' together "the Plan") setting out a cross-sector suite of objectives and actions aimed at reducing Ireland's carbon emissions. The Plan includes a number of new – and existing – measures that will have broad implications for the electricity sector.
Energy & Natural ResourcesThe Climate Action Plan 2019 (the Plan) references Data Centres (DCs) in different contexts.
Data CentresThe Climate Action Plan addresses the need to improve energy efficiency of buildings by meeting higher energy performance standards and by increasing retrofit activity.
Energy & Natural ResourcesThe Climate Action Plan 2019 references Agriculture in various contexts.
Energy & Natural ResourcesIn the past two days, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued (potential) GDPR fines of £183.39m and £99.2m on British Airways (BA) and Marriott International Inc., respectively. These are the first fines to be issued by the ICO under the GDPR, and the biggest fines issued by an EU Data Protection Authority (DPA) to date. As the fines affected individuals in multiple Member S...
Commercial & TechnologyIn Grant v Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources [2019] IEHC 468, Pilkington J found that although there had been inordinate and inexcusable delay in prosecuting the plaintiff's 16-year-old proceedings, the balance of justice lay in allowing the claim to proceed. The court's finding was based to a large extent on the fact that at the date of hearing of the motion, the proce...
DisputesThe recent approval by the Irish High Court of a scheme of arrangement that restructured US$1.65bn liabilities of Ballantyne Re plc (Ballantyne) confirms Dublin as one of the most effective restructuring venues in the EU.
Restructuring & InsolvencyFull and final settlement clauses are standard in agreements that settle construction disputes. Current market practice is to include in a settlement agreement a full and final settlement clause in the broadest language possible, in order to avoid parties whose relationship has broken down returning to the negotiation table with additional claims in the future.
ConstructionAlmost every employer in Northern Ireland will be aware of the recent developments coming from the NI Court of Appeal relating to the calculation of holiday pay within the PSNI (NICA Decision).
BelfastDomestic News – Director of Asset Management and Investment Banking of the CBI spoke about the approach that the CBI are taking to ensuring they keep ahead of the changing regulation climate. European News – ESMA issued numerous statements relating to different areas of MiFID II including transparency issues, volume cap data, derivatives to be traded on-venue, and launched a common supervisory...
FinanceDomestically, the CBI issued correspondence in relation to the timeline for the final Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Guidelines for the Financial Sector. In European news there have been numerous developments on a European level, including the introduction by the EU Commission of the CRD, CRR, and the Single Resolution Mechanism Regulation (SRMR).
Financial RegulationDomestically, The CBI published its quarterly insurance newsletter and the general good rules pertaining to the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD). There were many notable developments, including the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) publishing its 2018 Annual Report, a consultation paper relating to Solvency II and monthly technical information relation to...
Financial Regulation