Breakfast Business

Those who thought that Trump’s tariff wars had died down a bit were given a rude awakening at the weekend when he slapped a new 100% tariff on all Chinese goods.  On top of that there’s a risk of China taking retaliatory action against European companies after the Dutch government effectively expropriated a Chinese semiconductor company it accused of intellectual theft.  All to talk about with Finbarr Bermingham, the Europe Correspondent of the South China Morning Post.

Last week the EU commission sided with the airlines when it said that Spain was wrong to fine airlines for charging customers to take their bags onto the plane.  It could force Madrid to repay nearly €200m to the airlines and end up in the European Court of Justice. Consumer groups aren't so happy about it and want more clarity from the Commission. Joe discusses this further with Agustín Reyna the Director General of European Consumer advocate group BEUC.

An estimated $5.2 Trillion worth of investment is set to go into data centres over the 5 years to meet the huge, anticipated demand for AI services.  According to Digital Infrastructure Ireland, an effective moratorium on new centres alongside crippling infrastructural inadequacies such as water and power signals that Ireland is effectively closed for business.  DII, which champions data centre investment, says the entire economy will lose out without major strategic change in Government policy? All to discuss with Maurice Mortell is the chair of Digital Infrastructure Ireland.

The average price of a cup of coffee increased by more than a fifth in the EU last year. It was as much as 40% in Estonia and a mere 10% here in Ireland. Stephen McCabe went from being an architect to importing quality beans for sale to a select group of retailers excluding the big supermarkets.  Stephen McCabe of McCabe's coffee joined Joe on the show this morning.

Monday's business news headlines along with Joe Lynam and Russ Mould fro AJ Bell.

Whether it’s a facelift, liposuction, breast augmentation or hair transplants, demand for plastic or corrective surgery in this country is growing but we’ve no definitive idea how much money we’re spending on these procedures because many patients don't like to shout about it.  But it’s clear the days of suffering in silence over a physical feature you don't like are coming to an end.  Dr Fulvio Urso-Baiarda runs one of the biggest clinics in Britain: Eterno and spoke to Joe all about the business of plastic surgery.

VAT was introduced first in the 1970s as a ‘temporary tax’. 50 years later it raises over €1 trillion for European exchequers and is going nowhere.  Now the EU is looking at creating a Europe-wide way for companies to file their VAT returns for cross border sales digitally.  The Commission has included the payment service providers SumUp to its expert group and Anton Tsonev is the Global Head of Tax with SumUp.

Joe Lynam is joined by Kate English from Deloitte to look through Friday business news headlines. 

Irish house prices rose nationwide by around 8% last year amid rising real wages and very limited supply of homes.  Now the latest myHome.ie survey says that asking prices have moderated slightly and have risen by 5.7% But affordability is becoming a major issue with the average price of a property coming in at 8 times the average salary.  And shockingly a fifth of properties are now selling for 20% above the asking price. All to discuss with Conall MacCoille compiles the MyHome.ie house price survey.   

There’s been a lot of talk about Infrastructure this week in the budget.  The IMF says our physical infrastructure lags 31% behind competitor nations and that’s why the government says it’ll be spending €275bn on it over the next 10 years.  But there’s also a huge risk of wastage or cost inflation as too much money chases limited capacity.  Turnua builds and designs critical telecoms and pharmaceutical facilities and its founder is David Cox who joined Joe this morning.

Joe Lynam takes a look at today's business news headlines.

So we know what the government will spend our money on next year.  Some groups will be happy but most ordinary taxpayers won't be any better off despite the government sitting on a surplus of €10bn.  The budget was though targeted at companies at entrepreneurs at investors and as such was right up the Breakfast Business street.Joining Joe to break down what is means for companies large and small is Doone O'Doherty, Workforce Tax partner, PwC and Harry Harrison, tax partner, PwC.

Wednesday's business headlines along with Joe Lynam.

Today's business new headlines with Joe Lynam.

Soon today Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe will rise to his feet in the Dail and let us know what the government intends to spend your money on next year and how much of that money he will take away or give back to taxpayers. But we should probably expect a lot of money to be allocated to fix Ireland’s severely out of date national infrastructure.  But what else should we expect?   All to discuss with Colm O’Callaghan is a tax partner with Pwc.

So we heard from Colm about the macro picture and what we might expect later today from the government but what should small businesses expect and what do they need?  Joe asked David Broderick the Chief Executive of the Small Firms Association. 

The  Foresight Group is a private equity group which invests in Irish infrastructure and especially in the renewable energy space. They are currently building an interconnector cable between Dublin and Wales and a hydroelectric plant in an old mine in Tipperary. But they still face the headache of planning and delays before these huge projects come on stream.  All to discuss with the country Lead for Ireland at the Foresight Group Barclay Clibborn,

Leonie Maccann from Irish Life Investment Mgt joined Joe to run through Monday's business news headlines.

Some pretty notable changes for bank customers came into force over the weekend.  One of the changes SEPA or instant payments will mean transfers taking no more than 10 seconds at any time of the day or night.  The other Verification of Payee or VOP could pose problems.  That's because if you're paying someone online you have to get their full name exactly correct and not an approximation. BPFI launch nationwide information and awareness campaign including online resource Payrightnow.ie. Joe spoke to  Gill Byrne, Head of Payments at the banking and payments Federation Ireland.

Friday's business news review with Joe Lynam and Austin Hughes.