Breakfast Business

Friday's business news and markets with Joe Lynam and Aidan Donnelly from Davys.

Workday is a Californian software company which handles financial and HR issues using the cloud. They were voted by Fortune magazine in the Top 5 companies to work for in the US. They’re hiring 200 more people here in Ireland for their R&D division for AI and other sectors. Speaking to Joe this morning was Victoria MacKechnie Director of Corporate Affairs and Operations with Workday.

Shipping still transports the vast majority of products around the world. The longer the journey the more it costs per item. But the attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Houthi pirates means the Suez canal.  But now climate change and technology means that increasingly China is sending ships via the North Pole to Europe which takes around 20 days rather than 50 days via South Africa.  So is this the new route of choice from the Far East?  All to discuss with Malte Humpert, is an investigative journalist for High North News and gCaptain.

SIRO is the broadband provider set up by Vodafone and the ESB to provide high speed internet all over the country but mainly to smaller towns and larger suburbs. It says that many companies aren't signing up to full fibre broadband as quickly as household. Meaning speeds and reliability are better when you're at home than at work. Now SIRO is launching a new broadband product specifically aimed at SMEs. All to discuss with Aoife O’Reilly, SIRO’s Head of Enterprise.

Now days we do much of our shopping for cars online and some even buy the vehicle without setting foot in it.  Much of that is thanks to platforms such as Carzone or CarsIreland, all of which are owned by the Motion Group.  But in an age of improving public transport and even self-driving taxis, will selling cars become a lot less profitable than it was? All to discuss with Ger Toher Chief Operating Officer of Motion, the parent company behind Carzone and CarTell. 

Joe Lynam takes a run through the business news pages this morning.

Foodhub is a smaller rival to Diveroo and JustEatbut. Foodhub was set up by an Albanian immigrant in England who is now moving his global HQ to Dublin. His name is Ardian Mula and he’s the Chief Executive of Foodhub. 

Wednesday's business news review with Joe Lynam.

Calor offers bottled gas solutions as well as liquid petroleum gas for companies and home heating.  Now Calor is opening dispensing stations. These stations will include vending machines which will allow for an exchange of an empty cylinder for a new, full cylinder. Joining Joe in studio Marc Van Huet is the CFO of Calor Ireland.

Tuesday's business news review with Joe Lynam.

Those who thought that Trump’s tariff wars had died down a bit were given a rude awakening at the weekend when he slapped a new 100% tariff on all Chinese goods.  On top of that there’s a risk of China taking retaliatory action against European companies after the Dutch government effectively expropriated a Chinese semiconductor company it accused of intellectual theft.  All to talk about with Finbarr Bermingham, the Europe Correspondent of the South China Morning Post.

Last week the EU commission sided with the airlines when it said that Spain was wrong to fine airlines for charging customers to take their bags onto the plane.  It could force Madrid to repay nearly €200m to the airlines and end up in the European Court of Justice. Consumer groups aren't so happy about it and want more clarity from the Commission. Joe discusses this further with Agustín Reyna the Director General of European Consumer advocate group BEUC.

An estimated $5.2 Trillion worth of investment is set to go into data centres over the 5 years to meet the huge, anticipated demand for AI services.  According to Digital Infrastructure Ireland, an effective moratorium on new centres alongside crippling infrastructural inadequacies such as water and power signals that Ireland is effectively closed for business.  DII, which champions data centre investment, says the entire economy will lose out without major strategic change in Government policy? All to discuss with Maurice Mortell is the chair of Digital Infrastructure Ireland.

The average price of a cup of coffee increased by more than a fifth in the EU last year. It was as much as 40% in Estonia and a mere 10% here in Ireland. Stephen McCabe went from being an architect to importing quality beans for sale to a select group of retailers excluding the big supermarkets.  Stephen McCabe of McCabe's coffee joined Joe on the show this morning.

Monday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam and Russ Mould fro AJ Bell.

Whether it’s a facelift, liposuction, breast augmentation or hair transplants, demand for plastic or corrective surgery in this country is growing but we’ve no definitive idea how much money we’re spending on these procedures because many patients don't like to shout about it.  But it’s clear the days of suffering in silence over a physical feature you don't like are coming to an end.  Dr Fulvio Urso-Baiarda runs one of the biggest clinics in Britain: Eterno and spoke to Joe all about the business of plastic surgery.

VAT was introduced first in the 1970s as a ‘temporary tax’. 50 years later it raises over €1 trillion for European exchequers and is going nowhere.  Now the EU is looking at creating a Europe-wide way for companies to file their VAT returns for cross border sales digitally.  The Commission has included the payment service providers SumUp to its expert group and Anton Tsonev is the Global Head of Tax with SumUp.

Joe Lynam is joined by Kate English from Deloitte to look through Friday business news headlines. 

Irish house prices rose nationwide by around 8% last year amid rising real wages and very limited supply of homes.  Now the latest myHome.ie survey says that asking prices have moderated slightly and have risen by 5.7% But affordability is becoming a major issue with the average price of a property coming in at 8 times the average salary.  And shockingly a fifth of properties are now selling for 20% above the asking price. All to discuss with Conall MacCoille compiles the MyHome.ie house price survey.   

There’s been a lot of talk about Infrastructure this week in the budget.  The IMF says our physical infrastructure lags 31% behind competitor nations and that’s why the government says it’ll be spending €275bn on it over the next 10 years.  But there’s also a huge risk of wastage or cost inflation as too much money chases limited capacity.  Turnua builds and designs critical telecoms and pharmaceutical facilities and its founder is David Cox who joined Joe this morning.