There are now 140 helicopters and 450 private planes on the Irish Aviation Authority's books. Coincidentally, retail figures for February revealed that motor sales fell 3.8 % compared with the previous month.

SHOP 'TIL YOU DROP: Tesco tried to add some bling to the 2006 supermarket results season with the news that it plans to expand its jewellery range to more stores. Both it and Supervalu celebrated record sales figures but remained characteristically cagey about their profit margins. Tesco increased its sales last year to 2.7bn while Supervalu broke through the 2bn barrier for the first time.

IT'S ALL TIMING: The stamp duty issue continued to spread uncertainty and confusion in the economically all-important housing market last week.

Fine Gael and Labour failed to agree a timetable for its abolition, the PDs said they would abolish it in June while Fianna Fail continued to sit on the fence. See, it's all perfectly clear and simple, isn't it?

TURKISH DELIGHT: CRH continued on its apparent strategy of global domination with the acquisition of 50% of a Turkish cement firm and the half of US-based Paver Systems it didn't own. It remains to be seen whether CRH can beat last year's total of 2bn in acquisitions. The message to its targets seems clear though: resistance is futile.