Breakfast Business

The latest rankings in terms of customer experience are out and as usual, pharmacies are the most trusted sector with the credit unions number one among the public.  But the biggest loser in terms of what consumers felt was the state broadcaster RTE.  it finished last among the 150 best-known brands in the land. Cathy Summers from The CX Company spoke to Joe about these findings.

A run through of some of the business stories today with Joe Lynam.

When you are buying a house, have you ever been gazumped? Has the deal ever fallen through due to legal wranglings and small print? Have you ever walked away from buying a house simply because it wasn’t at all as advertised? All these things will hopefully be addressed when the new conveyancing law comes into force. Pat Davitt, chief executive of the Institute of Professional Auctioneers and Valuers (Ipav) 

Before lockdowns, there were more than 20,000 homes for sale on the myhome.ie website.  Now there are only 13,400.  That lack of supply is keeping house prices high despite soaring interest rates.  The latest quarterly survey suggests that asking prices rose by 4.1% over the past year nationwide.    It all comes as the property sector braces for the budget next week Conall MacCoille is the author of the report from Myhome.ie and spoke to Newstalk Breakfast this morning.

A run through of some of the business stories today with Newstalk Business Editor Joe Lynam.

15 Years ago one of the most consequential decisions was taken by the then coalition government led by Brian Cowan.  The Irish State would stand over all Irish banks - no matter how solvent they were.  It would lead to Irish taxpayers taking on the debt of the fully insolvent Anglo-Irish bank and nationalising the entire banking sector.  It also plunged the nation into its deepest-ever recession.We take a look at the Bank Guarantee with Aidan Donnelly from Davys and also Brian Hayes is the chief executive of the BPFI - before that, he was a minister in the FG government from 2011 but at the time of the guarantee was a finance spokesperson for the opposition.

A look at Friday's business papers and markets with Aidan Donnelly from Davys.

The PM Group is probably one of the biggest Irish companies that you've never heard of.  Started in Tipperary the Project Management Group builds giant manufacturing facilities or research labs or even distilleries. They have grown globally under their chief executive Dave Murphy and they share their profits with their employees.   Dave Murphy is the chief executive of the PM Group in Ireland and he is this month's BPTM.Our Business Person Of The Month is with thanks to Eversheds Sutherland.

 Much of the success of the German discount supermarkets lies of course in their lower prices.  That’s why they now command between them a quarter of the Irish grocery market.  But it’s not just price.  Both companies no longer source most of their produce from Germany.  They do so a lot closer to home. Only this week Lidl signed a renewed and beefed-up deal with O’Briens Fine Food to supply cooked meat products such as ham and turkey.  But will that push up the price for consumers?   To chat about this and more with Joe was Kevin Duffy, Senior Buying Director for Lidl Ireland. 

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

In Ireland, if a large company abuses its position in the marketplace, the regulator still has to get a high court judge to punish that business and huge extra costs and delays to taxpayers.  That changes today with the introduction of the Competition Act.  It means that if the consumer watchdog - the CCPC finds evidence of anti-competitive behaviour, it can act and punish wrongdoing directly.   This matters in Ireland because we’re home to some of the biggest firms in the world.  Brian McHugh is the Chair of the CCPC joined Joe on the show this morning.

In half almost half of those who work in the private sector aren't saving much at all according to research from Bank of Ireland for Pensions Awareness Week.  And even those who are saving for retirement, 67% say they're probably not saving enough. Speaking to Joe this morning was Bernard Walsh the Head of Pensions and Investments at the Bank of Ireland. 

Joe Lynam takes a run-through of some of the business stories featured in today's papers and websites.

The biggest search engine in the world - by a mile - wants to encourage SMEs to digitise their business and get online.  To achieve that Google is providing companies with accessible courses, online webinars, and even some free advertising with them.  The initiative is called You're the Business and Cera Ward from Google Ireland joined Joe this morning with more details on the incentive.

Despite its relatively small size, Dublin is a fairly big Financial Centre i.e. a hub for banking and finance.  Like all sectors, Financial services must do its bit to combat climate change and attract talent from all parts of society.  And to that end, there’s a meeting today at the Depot of Foreign Affairs of financial centres that hope to agree on a set of rules for sustainable finance - including a new Gender Finance Charter Speaking to Joe this morning was Marcos Neto, the Director of the United Nations Development Programme’s Sustainable Finance Hub. 

Newstalk Business Editor Joe Lynma takes a look at today's business papers and websites.

Combilift is a Monaghan-based manufacturer of multi-directional forklifts.  Thousands of warehouses and storage facilities are populated with Combilifts all over the world.  Now the company is moving into the wind turbine space to catch the renewable energy wave sweeping the world. Joining Joe this morning was Martin McVicar, Chief Executive of Combilift.

For decades trade between the Republic and Northern Ireland was modest, to put it mildly. Both jurisdictions tended to ship eastwards to Britain - rather than head north or south.  But then the UK decided to quit the single market but left NI in it with unfettered access to the EU.  It’s led to a surge in trade - reaching an all-time high of €12bn last year.But this might only be the start - as Northern Ireland takes increasing advantage of the fact that it is in both large open markets.   This will be discussed at a big conference on Wednesday in Dublin run by InterTradeIreland and Colin McCabrey is the Director of Trade with InterTradeIreland joined Joe ahead of the conference.

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

The credit union consumer sentiment index for September has been released and to discuss the findings was Austin Hughes Economist.