Breakfast Business

Enterprise Ireland is hosting its elevator pitches for Irish start-ups at Croke Park today. The idea is to encourage Irish intellectual property to remain in the country, but also move these university start-up companies to the next stage of funding and support. All of them will survive, of course, but it’s an important stage in the development of those companies – especially when they can’t or won’t get money from Ireland’s commercial banks. Deirdre Glenn director of commercialisation with Enterprise Ireland spoke to Joe this morning.

A look at today's business papers and websites with Joe Lynam.

It’s that time of year again. It’s the busiest time for retailers and possibly the most stressful time for consumers, but it’s also a busy time for scammers and fraudsters. There’s been new research into who are the victims of scams and fraud and it makes for surprising reading. Claire Cogan from Behaviour and Wise who has carried out some research into that spoke to Joe this morning.

Ever since the financial crisis, when Ireland’s entire banking system, collapsed and needed to be bailed out by taxpayers, the European Central bank, and the central bank of Ireland have insisted that all lenders set aside, huge quantities of capital to act as a risk buffer in case things go wrong again. The consultants Mazar have carried out a study of European banks and compared them, and Michael Tuohy Financial Services Audit Leader with Mazars joined Joe this morning with more details on the study.

A look at today's business papers and markets with Joe Lynam.

Tax credits for digital games were officially launched by Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Catherine Martin, yesterday. Vish Gain, Journalist with Silicon Republic explained what this involves.

Black Friday sales are underway in many shops around the country. Are they having a positive impact? To discuss Jonathan spoke to Duncan Graham of Retail Excellence Ireland.

This morning Jonathan Healy takes a look at some of the main business stories in this morning's newspapers.

One ice rink in Cork is using vegetable oil to provide all its energy needs. It could be a model for a lot more companies Speaking to Joe this morning was Orla O'Neill from Cool Running Events which powers outdoor events using renewable sources. 

Ireland is the 7th best country in Europe and the Middle East for private companies to set up and thrive. Some firms burdened with mountains of Irish red tape and ‘computer says no’ may be scowling at the radio upon hearing that but the findings from the consultants PWC and Colm O’Callaghan, Partner with PWC’s Entrepreneurial & Private Business Practice spoke to Joe on the show this morning with more on this.

We take a look at today's business papers and markets.

The most controversial FIFA world cup ever starts this weekend in Qatar - a tiny country which never even qualified before this. The stadiums have been built on the backs of thousands of poorly paid labourers from South Asia and an estimated 6000 of them died making them. Speaking to Joe this morning to discuss the moral cost of Qatar was Michael Hershman who has been involved in 4 or 5 world cups along with olympics and super bowls. He was a former advisor to Fifa and was on FIFA's independent governance committee. He’s also a co-founder of Transparency International and a member of the team that wrote the first comprehensive reform plan for FIFA in 2014 and he's the former CEO and current advisory board member of the International Center for Sports Security in Qatar.

A windfall tax on energy companies, house prices to fall, local property taxes to rise by 5% and a forecast that living standards will fall by 7%. It’s not the Budget in Ireland from 2010 but the emergency budget in the UK in 2022. It’s all designed to undo some of the damage done by the last budget in Sept by the ill fated Liz Truss. For more on what the UK budget Joe spoke to Paul Kavanagh from Patronus Partners.

Business Editor Joe Lynam takes a look at today's business papers and markets with Aidan Donnelly from Davys.

The family-owned Maxol group of petrol forecourt has posted a profit of €27 million for last year – a rise of 57% on the previous year as the company bounced back strongly from lockdowns. It has also announced an investment plan of €100 million to transform itself from a petrol and diesel-based business into a retail and licensing business– With a focus on fossil free recharging. Speaking to Joe this morning was Brian Donaldson - the boss of Maxo.l

As we face a precarious winter with soaring energy costs, the Energy watchdog in Ireland – the CRU – pays energy storage companies to store up capacity just in case there is a problem with other sources of energy such as coal or gas. But electric storage Ireland which represents those companies that store electricity in large batteries, think that they should be allowed release that stockpile of energy back into the grid to get prices down for consumers. Bobby Smith - Head Energy storage Ireland spoke to Joe this morning.

Business Editor Joe Lynam takes a run through of some of the business stories today.

Twitter cut its workforce by around 50%, Meta by 13%, Intercom also by 13% and Amazon looks set to lower its headcount by 3% this week. These are just some of the cuts that are happening - but the key question is - is this a correction due to over-hiring during the pandemic or is there something else at play? Joining Joe Lynam and Jess Kelly on this special show looking at Ireland's technology sector is the former Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald who is now an MEP and based in Brussels, Daryl Hanberry is the Technology Partner with Deloitte and serial entrepreneur DC Calahane from Dog Labs and Republic of Cork.

Along with Joe Lynam, Newstalk Technology Correspondent Jess Kelly takes a run-through of some of the technology stories today.

The war in Ukraine tore up the assumption that there would never again be a land conflict in Europe. It’s just one of the many geopolitical assumptions that we will need to rethink. There are many more. Janan Ganesh is the Associate Editor at the FT spoke to Joe this morning on the show.