Breakfast Business

73% of Irish consumers are planning to spend the same or less compared to last year over the upcoming Black Friday sales weekend, That's according to a new PwC survey. Emmet discusses this survey with Ruth McNamee, Director, PwC Retail and Consumer Practice.    

The Dune brand of both men's and women's footwear was started in 1992 by Daniel Rubin having previously been a family run supplier to supermarkets.  Nowadays Dune has 350 stores worldwide including concessions within many prestige department stores. Although it’s called Dune London most of the shoes are actually made in the Far East and much of that amazing story is covered in Daniel Rubin's new book, “Sole Survivor: How I Built a Global Shoe Brand”. 

One of the clear differences between US and European workplaces are the social protections over here. Also Longer maternity leave, more holidays and sick pay as well as more generous workplace pensions.  But America is growing faster and its citizens are becoming richer than us.  So is it time we diluted some of the generous extras we take for granted here in order to boost incomes?  It was one of the themes this week at the EU’s workplace research agency Eurofound in Loughlinstown.   Joining Joe to discuss further was Ivailo Kalfin the Executive Director of Eurofound.

Austin Hughes along with Joe Lynam takes a look at the main business news stories this morning.

We’re almost at Black Friday and Cyber Monday but will you be buying any gifts directly from Facebook or tiktok this year?  Half of us tend to buy on impulse around Christmas but is there any risk in doing so? David Curtin the Chief Executive of the .IE domain name  thinks it’s safer to buy directly from a registered domain like dot com or especially dot IE and he explained why to Joe.

Thursday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam.

Christmas is upon us and for many companies especially retailers  will hire short term or seasonal workers in the rush to buy stuff.  But employers need to know that even though these workers are only for a few weeks or perhaps months, they still have quite a few obligations to those seasonal employees.   Síobhra Rush, Head of the law firm Lewis Silkin here in Dublin 

The chain of shops 'Normal' has almost a thousand stores in 10 countries and now it’s opening in the ILAC Centre in Dublin today and Jakob Maarbjerg is the chief executive of Normal. 

Brett Bruen used to advise Barack Obama on geopolitics and nowadays is the president of the Global Situation Room which advises companies on potential risks to their reputations.  Its latest Reputation Risk report suggests that the biggest single risk to major companies comes from pronouncements, posts and rants from one man in the White House: Donald Trump. All to discuss with Brett Bruen is also a board member of Harvard university and the UCD Clinton Institute here in Ireland  

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

Sustainability continues to rank highly on the agenda of Irish businesses in spite of geopolitical uncertainty, economic headwinds and a shifting regulatory landscape according to EY Ireland’s latest State of Sustainability report. All to discuss with Derarca Dennis, EY Ireland Partner and Sustainability Services Lead.

Tom McEnaney takes a run through Tuesday's business news headlines.

Imagine broadband is freezing their prices until 2030. To discuss this and more with Tom was CEO for Imagine Broadband Niall Tallon.

New research by the Irish Management Institute reveals that nearly 1 in 3 business leaders are not prepared for the AI transformation.  Tom discusses this further with Professor Spencer Harrison, international expert in organisational psychology.  

Tom McEnaney  was joined on the show by Russ Mould from AJ Bell  to look through Monday's business news headlines.

PwC has today released its Irish family business survey for 2025. To discuss the findings of the survey with Tom was Mairead Harbron of PWC.

About €150bn is sitting in current accounts in Ireland earning next to nothing in interest.  Michael Healy, is the Managing Director with IG thinks we should be investing some of that money in capital markets especially in shares or ETFs.  IG has been a trading platform for many decades but now claims to be the cheapest way to buy worldwide stocks in Ireland putting it up to the likes of Davys or Goodbodys. Michael joined Joe to discuss further.

Ireland’s richest local authority Dun Laoghaire Rathdown is soon to equip many of its dozens or vehicles with new sensors and measuring devices in order to make that part of Dublin a so-called ‘smart city’.  The idea is to gauge where the worst pollution or most stubborn traffic are in the county and get the private sector to help rectify problems.  For more on this Joe spoke to Ronan Heron, is the Digital Strategy Officer with Dun Laoghaire Rathdown CoCo 

Newstalk Business Editor Joe Lynam and Austin Hughes from AJ Bell take a look at the business news headlines this morning.

There’s only one product that comes from goats that can command very high prices and that’s cashmere of course.  Suzie Monaghan has been selling cashmere sweaters, socks and jackets for 65 years on South Anne St .As we approach Christmas she expects her busiest time to start now. Joining Joe in studio to chat about her business was Suzie Monaghan from Monaghans Cashmere.