Breakfast Business

Friday's business news and markets along with Aidan Donnelly from Davy's.

Organisations should think beyond compliance and embrace sustainability as a driver of long-term value for Ireland’s economy and society. That’s the call from Nessa Whelan, Executive Director of UN Global Compact Network Ireland, the newly introduced Irish network of the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative. Nessa joined Emmet this morning on the show.

Despite record housing construction commencements last year in Ireland, completions still fell short. That’s according to findings from the Construction Information Services latest report.    Speaking to Emmet this morning was Scott Delaney, CIS Research Manager.

Thursday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam.

Throughout the 90s and the 2000s, the world became a smaller place in trading terms and globalisation was dominant. But now in the age of Donald Trump, tariffs and trade sanctions are very much on the menu. But do tariffs actually work or do they in fact encourage the tariffed nation to innovate more and potentially become an even bigger arrival as is the case with China? All to discuss with Macro-Economist with Global Geopolitical Research Christian Takushi.

We live in an age where appearances matter and forming a good first impression is important. None more so than your smile. Hamish Khayat developed his first dental hygiene products when he was at school and has now built up an empire including electric toothbrushes, floss and teeth whitening strips for sale all over the US and UK.  Now he’s arrived in Ireland selling his Burst oral care in McCauleys pharmacies.  Hamish Khayat Co-Founder and CEO of BURST Oralcare spoke to Joe on the show this morning.

Europe has continuously lagged the US in terms of startups and capital investment in new companies. Much of that is down to the perception of red tape that exists when operating across the 27 member states. There is a new proposal which aims to get over this by creating an EU wide recognised legal entity called an EU Inc. Joe was joined on the show by Stor Andreas Klinger who led this proposal and began by asking him whether it was indeed messy to start a business in the EU these days.

Wednesday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam.

€900 not bad for a few minutes work.  That’s the average refund for people who file their tax return online.  The Revenue wants more people to use the MyAccount facility online and join the 440,000 people who were entitled to a refund that's 80% of all those who filed returns last year. For advice on how to file your tax return Joe spoke to Aisling Ní Mhaoileoin, Manager of Revenue's National PAYE Services. 

The total value of pension savings in Ireland stands at €142bn and rising.  Most of that money will be invested in bonds and equities but most of those shares will be large American companies who aren't shy of a bob or two. Speaking to Joe this morning was Alan Merriman the Chief Executive of Elkstone and he believes that a certain proportion of our huge savings pot should be required to be placed in Irish companies to support startups here rather than in America. 

Monday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam.

25% that’s the new tariff that the US has provisionally placed on its closest and biggest trading partners Canada & Mexico.  Their crime supposedly not adequately combating illegal migration and the opioid crisis.  That's despite Trump renegotiating a trade deal himself with both nations to create the USMCA when he was last in office.  To discuss these tariffs Joe spoke to Brad Setser who was part of the Obama administration and is now a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. 

As we all know from 2007, a booming economy can collapse very quickly if there’s a major external shock.  We’ve similarly low unemployment and high house prices today. So are we just as vulnerable to a serious Trump-shaped externality?  Are about to entirely miss the AI boat in Europe? To discuss further Joe spoke to Neil Hughes the Chief Executive with Azets Ireland.  

Friday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam and Kate English Chief Economist with Deloitte.

The largest private healthcare insurer, VHI, announced across the board price increases yesterday. That will affect hundreds of thousands of customers. Overall, around 50% of Irish adults have private health insurance. That is among the highest in Europe. The body charged with ensuring fair play and that you are not overpaying is the health insurance authority.  Brian Lee is the Chief Executive of the Health Insurance Authority joined Joe this morning on the show.

Despite a robust economy Irish business owners and managers have been screaming out that they are bearing the burden and that profit levels have been cut through higher minimum wages and a slew of new benefits for employees including sick and holiday pay. The hospitality sector has been among the most vociferous in its demands for a cut in VAT rates. They look as if they’ll get their wish but will the new government slash red tape and really encourage entrepreneurialism?  Joe discusses this further with Peter Burke who has been retained as the Enterprise Minister and Joe began by asking him what employers can expect from the new government?

Joe Lynam takes a run through this morning's business news headlines.

Joe Lynam brings us Wednesday's business news headlines.

We’ve spoken about the energy required to run data centres in the past and how AI will drive that energy demand through the roof.  But the sudden arrival of DeepSeek from China seems to suggest that you might not need the type of scale that the US technology giants have been advocating. Indeed Deepseek has suddenly forced investors and engineers to think again about how AI can and should work. Karen Hao used to write for the WSJ and The Atlantic and was the first to profile OpenAI before the rest of us had heard of it. Joe spoke to Karen on the show and began by asking her about these externalities associated with AI.

Two large South American nations have been in the news lately.  One displeased Donald Trump and the other has managed to turn a huge budget deficit into a surplus.  Colombia faced immediate tariffs of up to 50% at the weekend because it refused to accept its immigrants deported in shackles from the US. Meanwhile Argentina’s far right president appears to have pulled an economic rabbit out of a hat.  To discuss these issues further Joe spoke to y Jon Farmer the Editor of Latin American  weekly report.