One of the relatively reliable revenue streams that the Irish Times still has is from the property pages. To preserve this happy state of affairs it has an incentive to position itself as (a) the kind of newspaper that will appeal to people who are interested in property
So the Irish Times is pandering to the relatively well educated middleclass 40 to 50 something year old home owner who will inherit a significant amount of money from their parents. In fairness those are good socialist credentials.
Buying RIP will over time will be seen as one of the best business moves any news paper in Ireland ever made,
someone has there hand on the pulse no pun intended,