There have been thousands, if not millions of words written about the decline of Intel in recent months, but it’s clear that the chipmaker remains in dire straits. Now chief executive Pat Gelsinger has stepped down after three years, plunging the firm into even greater uncertainty. That will inevitably have ramifications for Intel’s Irish operation, which remains somewhat in limbo.

Staying with businesses in crisis, Volkswagen workers have started staging strikes in response to the troubled company’s plan to seek paycuts and close plants. Derek Scally has the details.

Almost 5,000 mortgages were approved in October with first-time buyers accounting for nearly two thirds, according to new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI). As Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports, the group’s latest snapshot of the mortgage market here showed a total of 4,829 mortgages, worth €1.5 billion, were approved in October.