Breakfast Business

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

With the budget 7 weeks away, expect the various sectors in the economy to start pushing for what they want to see in it. One of the first up is the Employment and Recruitment Federation which wants drastic action to tackle skills shortages and how much tax must be paid by those on average rather than high incomes. Brendan McGinty, Managing Partner, Stratis Consulting as he penned the report for the Employment and Recruitment, Federation joined Joe this morning on the show.

Volkswagen, Virgin Media, Bank of Ireland, and even so-called Influencers were among the entities to have their knuckles rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority last month in its latest quarterly assessment of misleading or inaccurate adverts. The advertising watchdog examined 13 individual cases and fully upheld 9 of them. Speaking to Joe this morning on the show was Orla Twomey, Chief Executive of the ASAI.

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

Jess Kelly will run us through the best laptops to buy when returning to college.

We discuss 'August anxiety' or 'August blues' and why it arises as summer ends due to shorter days and colder weather with Stephaine Regan Clinical Psychotherapist, Media Contributor and Host of the podcast the ToughLove podcast.

We may grumble about the cost of living here in Ireland and moan about the weather and the lack of public transport but for jobseekers around the world, Ireland is the 3rd most popular country in the EU for inbound job searches. But is it only for the money? Joining Joe this morning with more on this was Pawel Adrjan, Director of EMEA Economic Research at the Indeed.com website.

Some of the brightest minds in global engineering gather in Dublin this week for the CIRP assembly to discuss the biggest issues being worked on in labs all over the world including electric cars, 3D printing, robotics, and of course AI. Speaking to Joe this morning Professor Edmond Harty is an innovator and entrepreneur with Innovalogix who previously worked in modernising the dairy sector.

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

Any company that physically manufactures stuff might be interested in a brand new course being offered by DCU alongside SETU which used to be Carlow IT. It’s called Advanced manufacturing industry 4.0 and students will learn virtually how to test materials and even produce them using 3D printing. It’s an exciting new way of learning and you could end up with a Masters Equivalent qualification. Speaking to Joe this morning was David Culliton, Programme Director and Course Lead at SETU.

Electricity prices for most households almost doubled last year after energy prices spiked following the invasion of Ukraine. While wholesale prices have retreated back to almost normal levels, Irish consumers have not seen the benefit yet of lower prices. Perhaps competition is what the market needs. Today sees the launch of Yuno Energy and Cathal Fay the chief executive of the company joined Joe on the show this morning.

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

Earlier this week we spoke to the boss of Molson Coors the American brewing giant who was set to dispense with CVs for certain types of jobs. Instead, they would ask applicants to submit a video about themselves for jobs. Is that helping people with less formal education or hindering those who might be shy and not great at selling themselves on video? Mike McDonagh from Sigmar Recruitment joined Joe to discuss.

According to Eurostat, Ireland is officially the most expensive country in the EU. This probably won't shock those of you who’ve just returned from Spain or Portugal from your holidays. But is it that much more expensive than other places? Uptin Saiidi is a renowned vlogger who travels around the world seeing how far $100 can get you in some of the world’s biggest cities. He was recently in Dublin and managed to eat, drink, and be entertained for that sum which is roughly €92. Uptin told Joe how he got on.

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

Breakfast Business has done some digging into the impact on the overall Irish economy if you were to strip out the Dublin economy from average incomes. Including the capital, GDP per capita at current prices in 2020 in Ireland stood at €75,000. Remove Dublin from that equation and the number drops to €60,000. The number minus Dublin for GVA or Gross value added is even lower. It all shows that without the capital city, Ireland would be a significantly poorer place. But is that an unavoidable reality or something to be worked on? Speaking to Joe this morning was Prof Jim Walsh, Professor Emeritus of Geography and a former Vice-President of Maynooth University. He recently published a book on income disparity between urban and rural dwellers.

As Ireland prepares for the rugby world cup next month, they are using new technology to enable it to review the tiniest of mistakes on the training ground in almost real-time. Ireland is the first rugby nation to use a pitchside mobile private network alongside drones to improve rucking, line-outs, passing etc. Joe visited the National Sports Campus in Blanchardstown to see the new kit and met a few of the players.

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

There are many street food festivals springing up all over the country. They include the Big Grill festival in Dublin starting tomorrow, which is sponsored by the Franciscan Well brewery from Cork. It’s one of the many international brands owned and distributed by the American brewing giant, Molson Coors, which also owns Miller and Coors beer. Laura Lee the head of Molson Coors here in Ireland spoke to Joe this morning.

30 years ago China was a mid-ranking emerging economy that posed no strategic threat to Europe or America. Today it’s the second-largest economy in the world and very much a military and economic rival to the West. But since the pandemic, China’s economy hasn't been firing on all cylinders. It is officially deflating and the central bank has to slash interest rates to stoke up demand. There are also fears of a property crash under a mountain of debt. Speaking to Joe on the issues facing China was Janet Mui from RBC Brewin Dolphin.