Breakfast Business

There has been a lot of turbulence in Ireland’s general insurance market with lots of companies exiting - claiming that it wasn't profitable.  But a series of reforms including the PIAB scheme and caps on payouts has seen newer entrants coming in.  One of the more notable new kids on the block will be OutSurance from South Africa which launches this week.    Joining Joe in studio was Peter Broome the Country Manager of Outsurance Ireland.  

The original mission of enterprise Ireland was to encourage small Irish companies to grow overseas. Increasingly that mission is to support start-up companies and last year it supported 156 such companies 55% of whom were outside the capital city. On top of that, some of those companies will represent Ireland at the start up “World Cup“. Speaking to Joe this morning was Anna-Marie Turley,  Head of Entrepreneurship and High Potential Start-Ups at Enterprise Ireland.

A look at today's business stories and websites with Joe Lynam.

The front page of the Business Post recently said that in order to meet population growth as well as demand, Ireland might need to dramatically hike its annual building target to almost  80,000 units.  That’s pretty unlikely at the moment but it’s clear that unified national effort is needed from the public and private sectors.  Bank of Ireland have hired a new Head of property and project finance business and he’s looking at using the bank’s leverage and financial clout to get shovels in the ground.  John Feeney joined Joe on the show this morning.

Artificial intelligence is the buzzword for companies.  But what will it really change for businesses and have the smaller firms any chance to keep up if they can't afford to use expensive AI packages compared to larger rivals.  Bearing Point are American consultants with a sizeable presence here in Ireland who advise other companies how and what to do with AI. Speaking to Joe in studio this morning was Gillian O’Sullivan is country Leader with Bearing Point Ireland. 

A look at the international business stories this morning with Russ Mould from AJ Bell.

2024 has probably been the worst year for Boeing‘s reputation since the company was founded almost 80 years ago. A door blew out mid-air in January and only this week it emerged that safety inspectors at the planemaker didn’t carry out their work on the new 787 Dreamliner aircraft. On top of that the BBC has spoken to whistleblowers outlining corners being cut at companies which supplied Boeing. And the business correspondent who has been across this story for months is the BBC’s Theo Leggett. Theo spoke to Joe this morning on the show.

Anyone who has ever painted anything or played a musical instrument or even dreamed of being a designer, will probably have noticed Apple’s much vaunted new advert for its new very expensive iPad.  Dozens of items in the creative process are physically crushed and destroyed revealing the new thinnest ever iPad in its wake.  The backlash was quick and stinging from many quarters from people who demanded that Apple withdraw the advert. Someone who has seen plenty of adverts which metaphorically crush the opposition is our Technology Correspondent Jess Kelly who joined Joe this morning.

Aidan Donnelly from Davys joined Joe this morning to run through the main business stories this morning.

The amount of money laundered around the world is an estimated $3.6 trillion or nearly 4% of global GDP.  Only 1% of that ever gets recovered.  It’s hard to fathom that so much money can be ‘cleansed’ from illicit origins and yet so little ends up in the hands of taxpayers.  So what can we do to curb money laundering that’s not already being done. Ireland lost out to Frankfurt in March to be the home of the EU Anti Money Laundering Agency but we do have plenty of experts in this field. Speaking to Joe this morning was David Lewis is the Managing Director and Global Head of Anti-Money Laundering with Kroll & Co.

Vertigo is usually associated with a fear of heights but it’s a lot more than that and can affect 1 in 20 in older people.  Treating it is complicated but an Irish startup is working on a device to help with that.  It’s called Vertigenius and today joining Joe was Mark Barry is the Chief Executive who has just secured €2.1m to expand R&D.

A look at today's business stories and websites with Joe Lynam.

Ireland’s largest chain of pharmacies, Lloyds with 80 shops, has just merged with McCabe's to make it a formidable group with 112 stores.  The entire group is now owned by a company called PHX which is a wholesale as well as retail business throughout Europe. Paul Reilly from PHX Ireland which now includes McCabe's pharmacies joined Joe this morning in studio.

A look at today's business stories and websites with Joe Lynam.

Public sector employees earn a gross salary of up to 6.6% less than their private sector equivalents.  But if you include smaller companies, that pay disadvantage all but disappears.  Then of course there are the huge perks enjoyed by civil servants such as very generous pensions and the fact that they are virtually unfireable. So do public sector workers earn more or less than those working for private companies on the whole.   Dr Emma Howard from TU Dublin discussed this further with Joe.

There were just over 9,000 burglaries in Ireland last year.  That was roughly half the number before lockdowns in 2019.  So does that mean we need less alarms? One business which certainly doesn't think so is Action24 which is competing in an ever-congested space of monitoring homes using technology and a call out service.  Unlike Phonewatch which is owned by a Norwegian company, Action24 says it’s the only full Irish service.  Speaking to Joe this morning was Aaron Mooney, is the chief executive of Action24.

As of the end of last month, the UK customs authorities have been inspecting all foods that enter the country from the EU.  But now there’s a €145 inspection charge per consignment even though it’s not exactly clear what constitutes a consignment. The good news for Irish food exporters is that these rules do not YET apply to us as members of the Common Travel Area. But they will and it could be messy. To discuss further Joe spoke to Carol Lynch is a partner in charge of customs & Trade at with the consultants BDO. 

Joe Lynam takes a run through of Monday's business news and websites.

The good news is that the most important part of the Irish economy the services sector is still growing.  But it's the slowest pace of growth so far this year. Financial services were the best performing sub sectors and technology and media the weakest and yet they all had some sort of growth. To discuss this and the wider economy was David McNamara is the Chief Economist with AIB. 

Ireland has set itself a target of 70% of its energy mix coming from renewable energy sources. Currently wind, wave and solar energy accounts for a modest 37%.The next stages in offshore wind energy are in the Irish planning swamp where there is a shortage of skilled experts to adjudicate but plenty of NIMBYs prepared to hold it up.   Speaking to Joe this morning was TJ Hunter, Senior Director for Development and Operations at Ørsted UK & Ireland which is one of the biggest developer of offshore wind farms in the world.