CRH proved again that big can be beautiful. The concrete king expects to report a 23% increase in annual profit when it announces its 2006 numbers in March. Following a year in which the company spent an Irish record 2.1bn on acquisitions CRH delivered a 27% return to shareholders underlining its status as Ireland 's bluest blue-chip.

QUINLAN PRIVATE emerged as the largest shareholder in a consortium which has just completed the 1.63bn purchase of 47 hotels in Britain from the Marriott chain. According to various reports Quinlan's stake in the consortium is between 45% and 50% with four Israeli investors picking up the slack.

OIL PRICES continued their retreat, falling 10% over the course of the week to $55 per barrel.

RYANAIR BOSS Michael O'Leary rounded on UK environment minister Ian Pearson last Friday after the Labour MP slated the Irish airline for killing the planet through its relentless trafficking of short haul passengers around Europe. Airlines are responsible for just 1.6% of global carbon emissions, said O'Leary, and Pearson "hasn't a clue what he's talking about". He said Ryanair was the greenest airline in Europe.