Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and deputy leader Michelle O'Neill. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Sinn Féin has proposed gradually increasing employers’ PRSI to the European average, in a move that could double the current rate of social contributions paid by businesses, the Business Post reveals. The party would also implement a third income tax rate for those earning over €140,000, raise capital gains tax from 33 per cent to 40 per cent, increase inheritance tax from 33 per cent to 36 per cent, and replace property tax with a wealth tax. The proposals are contained in Sinn Féin’s submission to the Commission on Taxation and Welfare, which was set up by the Government last year to find ways of meeting the growing costs of public services in the future. The commission has delivered its report to the Minister for Finance, and it is expected to be published in the autumn.

Supervalu and Centra owner Musgrave, one of Ireland’s leading food retail and wholesale companies, has called on the Government to urgently introduce a temporary financial support package for food retailers, including an energy rate cap, according to a report in the Sunday Independent. The call from Musgrave comes amid rampant inflationary pressures on business, including surging energy prices that are hitting firms across all sectors. Most SuperValu and Centra stores are owned by local entrepreneurs working in partnership with Musgrave.

The delivery of thousands of homes in central Dublin, including most of the 3,800 apartments being developed on the former Glass Bottle site by a Johnny Ronan-led consortium, is at risk due to water and electricity shortages, a report in the Business Post states. The group behind the project to develop the Glass Bottle site, which includes Ronan Group and Lioncor, has issued a series of warnings to senior State officials through A&L Goodbody, the legal firm, that more than 2,000 homes in the project will be delayed for an undefined period due to matters outside their control.

Altada, the Cork-based tech company that expected to be valued at $1 billion this year, has furloughed a number of its employees, with the founders admitting that the firm is “at a turning point” and facing “significant financial challenges”, a report in the Business Post revealed. Several people with knowledge of the company, who spoke on condition of anonymity, have claimed that Altada has spent much of the $11.5 million it secured in investment last autumn.

There is an extra sizzle in steak prices in Irish restaurants and gastropubs since last year due to the higher cost of beef, and some maitre d’s say they are now questioning whether it is worthwhile keeping the most expensive prime cuts on their menus, according to a report in the Sunday Times. Last week a Sunday Times survey of high-end restaurants specialising in steak found that most cuts have gone up by about €4 in price compared with last summer.

The Great Northern Distillery is investing €25m in doubling its capacity to two million bottles of whiskey a week to supply the growing number of domestic businesses tapping into the world’s fastest-growing “brown spirit”, according to a report in the Sunday Independent. Great Northern, based in Dundalk, Co Louth and owned by veteran entrepreneur John Teeling, supplies malt and grain bulk whiskey to brands such as JJ Corry in west Clare as well as own-label whiskey to retailers.

Only an emergency budget can prevent millions more British families from falling into destitution that will mark their children for decades, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown wrote in the Observer. He warned that a financial timebomb would explode for families in October as a second round of fuel price rises in six months takes effect.

Mr Brown said outgoing prime minister Boris Johnson, and Conservative Party leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, must this week agree an emergency budget. “If they do not, parliament should be recalled to force them to do so,” he said.