Breakfast Business

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.

You had probably never heard of the Chinese AI company Deepseek until last weekend that is.  It released a Gen AI model which has proven to be just as good if not better than ChatGPT except it cost a mere fraction of what OpenAI has pumped into ChatGPT.  It’s caused consternation on the markets as investors fear they've overpaid for Nvidia which are the chips we were told have to use to create Gen AI models. Speaking to Joe this morning was Emmanuel Adeleke is lead Partner with Deloitte for AI and data models. 

The formation of a centrist coalition should be positive for housing, planning, regulation, and infrastructure.  However Trumpenomics, including a potential tariff war and a radical cut in Corporation tax in the US could pose problems for the commercial property market.  They are some of the assessments of the latest property outlook for 2025 by CBRE. Speaking to Joe this morning was Colin Richardson Head of Research at CBRE. 

Tuesday's business news headlines along with Newstalk's Business Editor Joe Lynam.

Joe Lynam is joined by Neil Sorahan, CFO with Ryanair, to go through another profit loss for Europe’s biggest airline.

Joe is joined by Kathleen Brooks from XTB to go through all the big business news this Monday.

Joe Lynam sits down with the Chief Economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers, Dermot O’Leary, to talk the economist’s view of ‘Trump 2.0.’‘The risks are on the whole tilted towards the downside’.  That’s the glass half empty view of Goodbody stockbrokers as we start the first full week of the Trump presidency.

Thursday's business news headlines along with Newstalk's Business Editor Joe Lynam.

In 2023 an employee of the Israeli company Wix, based in Ireland, was dismissed for posting pro Palestinian views on social media.   She won compensation from Wix but the matter highlighted the grey legal area of what staff can say on public platforms which may or may not damage the reputation of their employers.  Saying in your Instagram or Twitter profile that all views expressed here are personal, doesn't offer any protection. So what should companies do? Speaking to Joe this morning was Michael O'Doherty who is  is a practicing barrister, author of Internet Law and Chairperson of MIDBA - media internet and data protection Bar association 

Through gritted teeth Ireland agreed to raise its long held Corporation Tax rate from 12.5% to 15% for large companies as part of the agreed OECD tax rules. But Donald Trump has now removed the US from that scheme entirely, placing its global implementation.  On top of that he’s now talking about punishing countries that charge American companies higher tax rates as well as creating an External Revenue Service. It all points to a major upheaval in how companies and governments will operate going forward and puts pressure on the EU especially because Trump believes that that Europe is treating America ‘very badly’.   Speaking to Joe this morning was Andy Bounds Brussels Correspondent with the Financial Times.

Wednesday's business headlines and news along with Joe Lynam.

For many micro companies or would-be entrepreneurs, the LEOs or local enterprise offices dotted around the country are the springboard to make a go at their business. They provide advice, training and access to successful business leaders for mentoring as well as a place to set up shop. Last year 7100 new jobs were created by the LEOs and 81% of them were outside the Capital. John Magee is the chair of the network of local enterprise offices joined Joe this morning on the show.

Ireland has a decent financial services sector. It is the 3rd largest country in the world for investment funds domiciled here. 14 of the top 15 aircraft leasing companies are based here. EY have carried out a survey of companies in this space and it found that Ireland needs to be careful not to get complacent and that countries like Poland or Sweden are stealing a march. To discuss further Joe spoke to Colin Ryan Partner in Financial services with EY.

Tuesday's business news headlines with Newstalk's Business Editor Joe Lynam.

Last year appeared on the surface to have been an amazing year for live music with huge concerts from Taylor Swift, Coldplay, ACDC and of course U2 in the Sphere. But lower down the food chain things are not so rosy in the live music circuit in Europe with many venues shutting down or reporting a surge in costs. Fernando Bittencourt Hersan from LiveEurope which represents live music venues joined Joe on the show this morning. 

The annual jamboree of the wealthy and famous starts today in the Swiss ski resort of Davos. The person that everyone will be talking about won't be there in person and will join via zoom on Thursday.  But the rich are set to get much richer and the tokenistic nods to diversity and fairness looks set to be washed away. Suzanne Lynch from Politico is there and joins us live from Davos