This week’s episode of Inside Business sees host Ciarán Hancock joined in studio by Niall Tallon, chief executive of Irish telecoms group Imagine. A minor in the Irish market, the company recently made a bold move offering cheap fibre broadband products along with a promise not to increase those prices for the next five years. This is designed to d…

This week’s guest on Inside Business is Tom O’Brien, group chief executive of Nephin Energy. Nephin owns 43 per cent of the Corrib gas field off the west coast of Ireland and also has ambitious plans to develop a network of agri-based biomethane plants across the country. While gas is a polluting fuel it continues to be an important part of our ene…

There is research from Brussels think tank Transport & Environment suggesting that plug-in hybrids are just as polluting as petrol cars. Neil Briscoe is a motoring expert and writes extensively on this for The Irish Times. And given his knowledge of motoring and our transition to EVs, were the findings a surprise to him? In the second part of the p…

On this episode of Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by Billy Hann, chief executive of Dublin Bus, the biggest public transport company in our capital city. He joined the State-owned operator almost three years ago after a long career with the Irish Aviation Authority and is charged with leading a company that now transports m…

Ireland’s national soccer team will slide down the international rankings unless significant investment is made in the League of Ireland’s academy system, according to the league’s director Mark Scanlon. He has submitted a proposal to the Department of Finance ahead of Tuesday’s budget requesting €4m annually, rising to €8m after two years to be sp…

The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park this weekend in the first regular-season NFL game to take place on Irish shores. Dublin is now part of a growing roster of cities outside the United States hosting lucrative NFL games. Irishman Paul Holland has worked in the sports marketing industry for many years and has charte…

First up on the Inside Business podcast this week, the rift between the board of the DAA, the State-owned operator of Dublin and Cork airports, and its CEO Kenny Jacobs. The Irish Times reported yesterday that a deal has been agreed between the two sides that will see Jacobs leave his role early with a €1m exit package. Joe Brennan and Martin Wall …

With the budget just under a month away, what will ministers Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers deliver on October 7th? The one-off cost-of-living measures of recent budgets may be discontinued, but what will be in their place to help families feeling the pinch? Will there be tax cuts? And what can renters and those looking to buy a home expect? Cli…

First up on Inside Business this week is the plight of independent Irish breweries, who, like so many now, are finding the cost of doing business to be far too high. This is despite an explosion in the popularity of craft beers here in the last decade. What costs are forcing some operators out of business? How are they coping with competition from …

The predictably slow delivery of infrastructure here has a raft of negative consequences, not least how it undermines our competitiveness in a very challenging global environment. So why are vital projects so slow to get over the line? How does Government prioritise one project over another? And what can be done to streamline the planning process? …

The Economist magazine recently published its annual country rich list. Ireland was nowhere to be found on the list in spite of the fact that we are constantly being told that Ireland is one of the world’s richest countries. Host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by Cliff Taylor of The Irish Times to talk about how rich we all are, or not as the c…

This week Inside Business is looking at tourism. Data from the Central Statistics Office earlier this year suggested that the number of visitors to the country had fallen off a cliff. Not so said the industry, while acknowledging that the market was a bit soft compared with the past two years of trading. Joining host Ciarán Hancock in studio to dis…

We start this week’s episode of Inside Business with a look at how influencers have been reminded recently by Revenue of their obligations to pay tax on their earnings. Siobhan Maguire is a contributor to The Irish Times and wrote an excellent piece this week on this hot topic. She joins host Ciarán Hancock on the line to go through the many ways i…

This week host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by economist and Irish Times contributor John FitzGerald. He gives his reaction to the EU-US trade deal that will see a 15% tariff rate on European imports going into the US, a deal that he feels the EU had agreed to with ‘two hands tied behind its back’ on account of its continued reliance on the U…

This week the Government outlined spending of €200 billion on a National Development Plan stretching over the next decade. In parallel it also set out its stall for this year’s budget, signalling a spending and tax package of €9.5 billion. Joining host Ciarán Hancock in studio to dissect these spending plans and tax cuts against a backdrop of a pot…

Economist and writer David McWilliams was scathing about the level of dereliction in Dublin city in a recent article in the Irish Times. He suggested tax breaks and other measures to breathe new life back into the capital and to get more people living in the city centre. He joined host Ciarán Hancock to discuss his ideas and how we can learn from t…

This week we’re looking at the Juggle that women with young children have to make in Ireland to find a work-life balance. It’s an age-old problem in Ireland with no solution yet in sight. Margaret Ward writes about Work issues each week for the Irish Times as well as running her own consultancy business Clear Eye and she’s written a series of artic…

This week we are looking at the phenomenon of the D4 farmer. Not some wealthy entrepreneur herding cattle in Ballsbridge but wealthy individuals buying up farmland around the country as a wheeze to reduce the inheritance tax bills for their children. How does the tax break work? What impact will it have on land prices? And is anything being done to…

This week host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Willie Walsh, the director general of IATA, the Geneva-based representative group for the airline industry. Willie will be known to you as the Irish man who was a high-profile chief executive of both Aer Lingus and British Airways. He then became head of IAG, which is the parent group to both of those airl…

This week we’re flying high with the Irish drone delivery company Manna. Its founder and chief executive is Bobby Healy, who joined host Ciarán Hancock in studio to discuss what he believes is Manna’s massive growth potential. Set up in 2019, Manna only recently began generating revenues and is yet to turn a profit. It is currently flying nine dron…

Conall Mac Coille, chief economist at Bank of Ireland, joins Cliff Taylor and Ciaran Hancock to talk about Irish economic and business news: RPZ reform: will changes to rules for landlords and tenants help bring investment to Ireland IFAC report: why Ireland's corporate tax receipts may be about to boom again. But will it last? Produced in associat…

Donald Trump’s second term in the White House has seen markets go through a period of extreme volatility, something that has worried many Irish pension holders. How should they react? Should they react at all? And what is the outlook for the rest of this year? Munro O’Dwyer is a partner at PwC Ireland and joins host Cliff Taylor in studio to discus…

New electric vehicle sales here dipped last year by 24% when compared to 2023, further making a mockery of the government’s target of 1 million EVs on Irish roads by 2030. A reduction in the SEAI grant and gaps in charging infrastructure fed into consumer uncertainty when it comes to making the switch from petrol and diesel vehicles. But that trend…

This week brought more bad news for first time buyers and those renting. Figures from both the CSO and property website Daft.ie suggest that house prices and rents continue to soar across the country. The national monthly average rent between January and March surpassed €2,000 for the first time. And the chronic shortage of supply for those looking…