Breakfast Business

AECOM is one of the biggest construction companies in the world.  Headquartered in Dallas, they have 700 employees on the island of Ireland and build some of our biggest projects including major new roads, rail and airports.  Their annual report is out and it paints a mixed picture for the construction sector.  It says the rampant cost increases of recent years appear to have stabilised and some costs such as steel prices are going down but office vacancy rates are as high as 18% John O’Regan is the Country manager for AECOM joined Joe this morning on the show.

Yesterday evening Samsung unveiled the S24 lineup of devices at an ‘Unpacked’ event in San Jose. Newstalk’s Technology Correspondent Jess Kelly was watching the event, and already has her hands on the flagship device the S24 Ultra. Here’s what you need to know about the new phones

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

The Number of people joining the accountancy professions is down 33% over the past 8 years alone.  So to streamline the professional qualifications the 2 largest indigenous professional bodies, CPA Ireland and Chartered Accountants Ireland are set to merge.But will that stop the decline in numbers and to discuss what this merger means for the rest of us? Joe asked Mark Gargan the President of CPA Ireland.

Every year the great and hugely wealthy meet up in the Swiss Alps ski resort of Davos to swap ideas and work out ways to make themselves even wealthier.  PwC also publishes a global risk survey of what is worrying those senior bosses.Today it also publishes the specific concerns of Irish compliance officers and members of the C suites.  Cyber attacks came out on top of the Risk survey but climate change only came in at 5th most pressing concern.  Andy Banks is Risk Management and compliance Partner with PwC Ireland and Andy joined Joe this morning on the show.

Newstalk's Business Editor Joe Lynam takes look at today's business stories and websites.

2 years ago President Biden introduced a bill deceptively called the Inflation Reduction Act.  It was designed to stimulate the post COVID US economy and kickstart the move away from fossil fuels through grants and subsidies worth almost €1trillion.  It poses a major threat to EU nations though as State Aid rules forbid member states subsiding their own national companies. But a work around designed to prevent Europeans companies moving to the US could end up harming businesses in smaller EU nations such as Ireland. Speaking to Joe was Colm Markey is the MEP for the Midlands and North West. 

If you've a small business you should be familiar with Local Enterprise offices or LEOs.  They are dotted all over the country and they often provide the first point of contact for startups which wish to benefit from government grants and advice especially on the road to digitalisation of how they work.  The Network of Local Enterprise offices has published its annual results today and John Magee the chair of the Network of Local Enterprise offices joined Joe this morning on the show.

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

The European single market was established 30 years ago to provide for freedom of movement for goods and services, Capital and people. For the most part, it has been a huge success for EU member states, but according to a new report from the European Chambers of Commerce, there are still major problems trading between them including some member states, insisting on highly unusual rules and standards, which make it difficult for foreign firms to trad  Ian Talbot the Chief Executive of Chambers Ireland spoke to Joe about the report findings.

It’s one thing to start up a technology business but it’s quite another to scale it up and reach sufficient momentum so that it can become an international player.  It’s even tougher to do so outside the main urban centres but next month will see the 3rd Regional Start-up Summit in Limerick.  The project is backed by Enterprise Ireland, Google and the Irish Strategic investment fund.  It follows on from two thirds of the jobs created by EI last year being outside the M50  Martina Fitzgerald is the Chief Executive of Scale Ireland joined Joe on the show this morning.  

A look at today's business stories with Paul Kavanagh from Patronus Partners.

After a 3 month hiatus away from the bond markets, Ireland sold €3 billion worth of 10 years Government bonds yesterday which was vastly oversubscribed.  In fact only German bond yields are lower than Ireland’s these days which is a long way from 2010 when we went into a bailout because no one would lend us money.   Joining Joe this morning was Dave McEvoy Director of Funding and Debt Management with the NTMA. 

 46 years ago a fast food restaurant was opened in Ballinasloe, Co Galway. A year earlier McDonalds had opened its first outlet on Grafton St.  Both entities have survived and thrived throughout Ireland with Supermacs now having 120 restaurants and will soon be opening in Dublin airport.  The founder Pat McDonagh prides himself as still being very much hands on but he’s also branched out into the hotel and forecourt business and now offers EV charging as well. Pat joined Joe on the show this morning.

A look at today's business stories and finance markets with Dan Moroney from RBC.

 Exports of Irish made food fell last year for the first time in a while but still remained above €16bn in value.  Worryingly sales in key sectors overseas such as dairy and whiskey dragged the over figure down.  Joe caught up with Jim O'Toole the Chief Executive of Bord Bia and asked him why exports had stagnated. 

The BT young scientists exhibition was formally opened by the President yesterday and to the public from today.  It’s a wonderful chance to see how smart our young citizens are and previous winners have included the Collison brothers who are now the billionaire owners of Stripe. So what does this years crop tell us about the direction of travel for science, technology and business?   Shay Walsh Chief executive of BT Ireland  spoke to Joe this morning in studio.

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

Just before Christmas Day, the EU Council, Parliament and Commission agreed the wording of the world's first comprehensive set of rules and guidelines to deal with Artificial Intelligence the AI Act.   It set out for example that facial recognition would be banned in public places. Other AI applications in health education and recruitment were obliged to have transparency clauses so that regulators could take a peek inside the code being used.   Brando Benifei is an Italian MEP and represented the EU parliament in those talks with member states for the AI Act 

We recently interviewed the boss of Enterprise Ireland Leo Clancy and he was about to go to Cherrywood to announce a major €100m investment and the creation of a medical research campus by the EI client company APC and VLE Therapeutics.  It’s set to create 300 jobs and nurture the development of drugs for treatments in HIV, cancer and Alzheimer’s.  Speaking to Joe this morning was Mark Barrett, founder of APC and VLE Therapeutics.