Breakfast Business

Thursday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam.

The Planning & Development Act was supposed to speed up the delivery of big infrastructure projects by limiting the number of objections permissible.  Thus far there is no evidence of the Act doing what it says on the tin.  So why do we have an objection culture in this country and why even bother throwing good money after bad if everything will be blocked in the courts? All to discuss with Alice Whittaker is a partner with the law firm Philip Lee who has worked on a myriad of notable projects such as the Dublin Incinerator and the forthcoming Dublin Array wind energy project. 

Last month Stena ferries said that it was stopping its services from Rosslare in Wexford to France impacting holidaymakers and businesses alike.  Now Brittany Ferries says that it will step in and beef up its existing sailings from Rosslare to Cherbourg.  Brexit was the main reason why container traffic has increased 6 fold from the South East as EU companies could bypass customs checks and delays in Britain by sailing straight to France, Belgium or even Spain from Ireland.  Christophe Mathieu is the CEO of Brittany Ferries 

Wednesday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam.

We take a look at Tuesday's business news headline.

Tom Hayes spend five years in jail for rigging the key benchmark interest rate among banks known as LIBOR.  He used to work for UBS and Citi banks and vigorously protested his innocence. Two weeks ago the UK Supreme Court agreed with him and quashed the conviction. But how did it come to pass that an individual and not a wealthy bank would be sent to prison for doing his then job and what happens now to those other traders who pleaded guilty in similar circumstances in order to minimise their punishment? Tom Hayes joined Joe this morning to tell his story.

All the business news with Aidan Donnelly from Davys.

Visitor numbers from overseas to Ireland in June were down 2% to 654,000. That’s much better than many had feared after earlier CSO data suggested a major fall-off in tourist numbers. But that figure is still around half the number of people who came to this island before Covid in 2019. Why? Is it the astonishingly high cost of holidaying and eating out in Ireland or is something else at play? Alice Mansergh chief executive of Tourism Ireland, joined Joe Lynam on the show to discuss.

The AI act from the European Union came into force earlier this year but its legal obligations are being slowly rolled out. Tomorrow, an important new phases come into force which will oblige AI companies and users of artificial intelligence to comply with a slew of new rules. Doubtless, this will irritate quite a few people in the tech industry and even in the White House. So what are these new obligations? Maureen Daly an IP Partner with the lawyers Pinsent Masons joined Joe Lynam on the show to discuss.

Victoria Scholar from Interactive Investor joined Joe Lynam to discuss the latest on the markets.

Last week the government said it was set to spend €100bn over the next 5 years on infrastructure. Most of that will go on housing and water but the urgency on expanding the electricity grid was highlighted when Amazon walked away from a giant project because ESB networks couldn't guarantee the power for it. Now the energy suppliers Pinergy say that demand for electricity will grow by 66% by 2050 and based on the current trajectory and that demand won't be met with adequate supply. Enda Gunnell chief executive of Pinergy joined Joe Lynam on the show.

The newly merged Smurfit Westrock's is the world's largest listed packaging partner. Today they published their 2nd quarter consolidated results and they posted a net loss of $26m on sales of just under $8bn but an EBITDA of $1.2bn. The fact that it operates across 42 countries with paper and cardboard 67 mills means it should be shielded from the de-globalisation brought on by Donald Trump's tariff wars. Ken Bowles, chief financial officer with Smurfit Westrock joined Joe Lynam on the show.

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

District heating is where local homes and businesses get their heating from a single building in the area which itself gets that energy from renewable sources such as heat pumps or solar. Ireland has the lowest amount of renewably sourced heat in all of Europe. The Scandinavians are streets ahead of us. Copenhagen has 3000km of pipework for district heating - while Dublin has only 2.  But fear not only 2 weeks ago the very first district heating scheme was announced in Ireland and it's good news for my next guest who specialises in it having lived in Denmark for many years. David Connolly, chief executive of HeatGrid.ie and the Newstalk Green Biz person of the month with Repak joined Joe Lynam on the show.

Poolbeg Pharma, named after the infamous Red & white towers has been working on some very exciting new ideas including a new cancer immunity drug and a potential weight loss tablet. But most early drug developments fail to make it to the final round of testing on humans because it’s so risky and so expensive.  And what does a pharma company like Poolbeg make of the EU-US trade deal with its 15% tariffs thus far? Jeremy Skillington, is the chief executive of Poolbeg pharma and joined Joe Lynam on the show this morning.

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

Last week the government said that the tax cutting package in the October budget would be €1.5bn but that almost ⅔ of that would go to the hospitality sector in order to cut VAT rates for it back down to 9%. My next guest will be one of the beneficiaries of that but, because all his clients are companies, won't be doing any profit taking - he assures me. He runs entertainment and catering for business tourists from all over the world. He even provides the catering for movie sets such as the TV series Wednesday and Ireland now earns around €1bn a year from business tourism. Andrew Rudd is the owner of Medley and joined Joe Lynam on the show this morning.

Joe Lynam was joined by John Alistair the former Director of International Affairs for the EU Commission and Head of the EU Delegation to the WTO as well as the UN. He’s a Senior Trade negotiator and now a lecturer and consultant. He knows a fair bit about international trade and yesterday he described the EU trade deal with the US as ‘the worst trade deal ever’. But what does he really think? 

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

Joe Lynam takes a run through Monday's business news headlines with Russ Mould of AJ Bell.