Breakfast Business

Only this week, tourism bosses urged the government to make it easier to recruit people in the hospitality sector from outside the EU. Now there’s a new website which specialises in doing exactly that. It’s called Recruitroo and is backed by Enterprise Ireland and private equity. But should we be hiring people from overseas amid a housing crisis? Speaking to Joe this morning was Shane Kiernan the Director of Recruitroo.

Newstalk Business Editor Joe Lynam takes a run-through of some of the business stories today.

We all know how important skills are and we've spoken about skills shortages many times but how do you get the appropriate skills if you can't afford the time nor money to do a degree or a diploma? One solution may be micro credits which are short courses in specific areas to beef up your CV. The Ministers for Enterprise and Higher Education will launch a new website today which aims to facilitate just these courses. It’s called microcreds.ie and Jools O’Connor from MicroCreds joined Joe this morning on the show.

Social enterprises are companies without a profit motive. They provide a valuable service and sometimes fill the gaps in the market that normal companies can't or won't fill. Rethink Ireland supports more than a hundred social enterprises and they in turn provide services for 400,000 in this country. To discuss their important role was Deirdre Mortell is the CEO of Rethink Ireland.

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

There is a drastic shortage of planning experts in the public and private sectors. It won’t help that planning experts were not included in the initial round of skills shortages, which the Government is hoping to highlight. Now the Irish Planning Institute says that almost 2/3 of public sector bodies say they have “significant shortages“ of experts and it is holding up the whole economy. Sean O’Leary a senior planner with the IPI from Cork gave Joe more details on these findings.

Irish pension funds manage €128 billion of retirement savings. It’s a very important job and one which needs to weigh up risk versus reward for the savers. But it’s also a very profitable line of business for the big insurance companies who hold great power with their shareholdings in businesses all over the world. But are they exercising that power correctly? Speaking to Joe on the show this morning was Jerry Moriarty the boss of the Irish Association of Pension Funds.

A run-through of some of the business stories today with Business Editor Joe Lynam.

Large energy users such as Data centers of big manufacturing plants have a big challenge decarbonizing without losing vital supplies of electricity. For a start they need to rethink where they can get reliable renewable energy into their facilities. This is what the US multinational UIG or the Utility Innovation Group does and today they’re announcing that they're buying the Irish energy consultants Enicity. Alan McHugh is the boss of EniCity which is being taken over and joined Joe Lynam on the show this morning.

There was always a risk that the dream of doing our bit to protect the environment would come up against the cold hard reality of soaring energy bills and rising costs. Well, that’s been borne out by the latest AIB sustainability survey. Only 4 in 10 of those polled said sustainability was important to them - the lowest in 4 years. A third said they were already cutting down on the number of flights they took. Gerard O’Neill from Amarach Research conducted the study for AIB and joined Joe Lynam on the show.

A run-through of some of the business stories this morning with Newstalk Business Editor Joe Lynam.

This week we hear that corporation tax revenue rose by a whopping 20% in a single year as we head for another huge budget surplus. It all means that a year or so before a general election the Government will almost certainly be giving money back to taxpayers in the October Budget. With more on this Joe spoke to Peter Vale is Tax Partner with Grant Thornton.

The European Inventor Awards were held this week and Eimear O'Carroll alongside Rhona Togher won it for Ireland in the SME category. They co-founded Lios which makes a brand new material designed to soak up sound and noise more effectively. Eimear joined Joe on the show.

We take a look at the business markets today with Aidan Donnelly from Davy's.

With the public finances in rude health, the Government agency charged with managing how much money we borrow the NTMA has said it will only go to the markets one more time this year. Does this mean we don't need to borrow any money and do we have enough if the economic wind changes? Joe was joined on the show this morning NTMA Chief Executive, Frank O’Connor, and began by asking him why Ireland won't be going to the money markets after Sept?

We all hate the constant stream of fake texts and fraudulent emails - purporting to be from An Post, eFlow, or a bank. For small companies, the threat can sometimes be worse because they get subjected to ransomware on top of that where fraudsters threaten to cripple the firm’s business if they don't pay a ransom. Neil McDonnell the chief executive of the Irish small and medium-sized enterprises group ISME spoke to Joe this morning.

A run-through of some of the business stories this morning with Newstalk Business Editor Joe Lynam.

The Government has a strict target for all newly leased buildings to reach a ‘near Zero’ energy rating by 2025. But according to research from Savills Ireland, only 2 of the 238 buildings leased by the government are A-rated and it signed leases only last year for almost 100,000 sq feet for C or D-rated properties. It all means the State will have a mountain to climb to achieve its own targets for low-energy buildings. For more on this Joe was joined on the show by Orla Coyle is the Director of Sustainability with Savills Ireland.

Last week the European Commission published plans to introduce a Digital Euro. In a way, it’s like having the same money with the same value but it will only exist in electronic form. The Commission also said that it would be guaranteeing that Cash should be protected. To get the details on this, Joe was joined on the show by Mairead McGuinness the European commissioner for Financial Services.

A run-through of some of the business stories today with Business Editor Joe Lynam.