Afleveringen
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Ireland’s ongoing housing crisis was the number one concern for voters as they went to the polls in November with scarce supply and price inflation a feature throughout 2024. It was also a topic covered repeatedly on this podcast throughout the year with many experts and contributors offering context, insight, and in some cases, potential solutions to the housing crisis.
Produced by John Casey.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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It has been another tough year for restaurant and café owners – according to the Restaurant Association of Ireland, two venues a day are closing as businesses struggle to make ends meet amid rising inflation and a spike in payroll costs.
On this week’s episode of Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Vanessa Murphy, co-owner of Las Tapas de lola on Camden Street in Dublin’s city centre, and Aisling Rogerson, owner of the popular Fumbally café and bakery in Dublin’s Liberties. They discuss their trading struggles post-Covid, rising prices and menu changes, the challenges of recruiting and retaining staff, and how they have changed their trading hours to reflect the altered dining habits of customers.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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As 2024 nears its end, Inside Business looks back at some of the big stories of the year. Everything from rising house prices to soaring corporation tax receipts, to Taylor Swift concerts and Donald Trump’s re-election as US president.
To review the year, host Ciarán Hancock iss joined by Eoin Burke-Kennedy, Conor Pope and Ian Curran of The Irish Times to discuss issues around housing, the cost of living crisis, the €13 billion Apple tax ruling, and the demise of many restaurants and cafes.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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On this week’s episode of Inside Business, host Cliff Taylor is joined in studio by Louisa Earls, manager of Books Upstairs, along with Laura Caffrey, & Clare Grennan, Co-Owners of Irish Design Shop, to get an insight into their experience as independent retailers in Dublin city during a period of the year that accounts for up to a third of their annual sales.
Louisa discusses the pivot Books Upstairs made towards online sales during the early days of Covid, the titles that have flown off the shelves this year, competing with Amazon and what the government could do better to protect small independent businesses operating in the city.
Laura and Clare from Irish Design Shop explain the challenges of starting a business in the teeth of the financial crash in late 2008, stocking products from over 60 Irish designers in its Drury Street shop, soaring tourist trade and why so many online orders are now coming from suburban Dublin.
All three guests highlight the surge in shoplifting and why it is so difficult to combat.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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With the Irish government rolling in clover like never before, what is the outsider’s view of our economy?
Max Colchester, Britain Correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, has been writing about this following his recent visit to Dublin. He notes how other governments around Europe are struggling and raising taxes while we have set up two sovereign wealth funds to make good use of the billions in corporate tax receipts that continue to roll in – something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Donald Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick.
He joins host Cliff Taylor to discuss the envious position Ireland finds itself in.
Also on this episode, Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent Conor Pope digs into whether the onslaught of advertised bargains for Black Friday are as good as they sound.
Why do sales now start weeks before Black Friday? Can I get the same bargains during the year? And does buyer’s remorse and this annual event go hand in hand?
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Donald Trump’s stance on imports coming into the US could have very real implications for Irish transatlantic trade.
September proved to be a record month for Irish exports, as well as a record level of exports going to the US. This underlines the importance of a market that could be jeopardised if the president-elect follows through on his promise to introduce blanket tariffs on goods entering the US.
Carol Lynch is customs and trade partner with BDO Ireland and she joined host Cliff Taylor to give some insight into what those tariffs could do to the Republic’s largest export market outside of the EU, and how Irish companies have already started preparations to manage those impacts.
Cathal Foley and his company PACE won the sustainability and overall prize at the 2024 Irish Times Innovation awards.
PACE stands for Platform for Analysing Carbon Emissions, specifically airline carbon emissions. The aviation sector has set an ambitious target of net zero emissions by 2050, something that is likely to cost around five trillion dollars. Cathal explained how PACE aims to help the sector achieve that target.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Research from online broker Doddl.ie has estimated that savings of about €7,400 a year could be achieved by switching your mortgage rate. Martina Hennessey is chief executive of Doddl.ie and she joined host Ciarán Hancock to go through the maths on this. She also explained how the most attractive rates available apply to those with the most energy efficient homes.
In the past week, the US stock market has surged following Donald’s Trump’s election victory. Donnacha Fox is chief investment officer at Quilter Cheviot and joined Ciarán in studio to explain why US stocks and crypto have spiked since it became clear that Trump was heading back to the White House.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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After a remarkable political comeback, Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States. So, what will that mean for the Irish economy, given that he has threatened huge tariffs on imports and promised to slash its corporate tax rate.
Host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Cliff Taylor of The Irish Times to get his view on how bad a Trump presidency could be for Ireland.
Also on the show, Conor Pope of The Irish Times explains why being single can cost you more than €300,000 over and above what a person in a couple will pay over the course of their adults lives, taking into account areas like housing, groceries, and taxes.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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This week’s episode looks at the housing crisis from a slightly quirky angle.
Imagine if Michael O’Leary decided to set up a development company to build housing and applied some of the lessons from Ryanair’s experience in disrupting the air travel business over the past three decades.
It’s a point that Irish Times economics correspondent Eoin Burke Kennedy posited in a column earlier this week. Could a no-frills approach reduce construction costs that could in turn be passed on to home buyers?
Paul Mitchell, director of construction consultancy Mitchell McDermott and an expert on construction costs, also joins the podcast to give his thoughts on potential solutions to ease the housing crisis in the coming years. Mitchell McDermott recently produced a cost study report on behalf of the Department of Housing, contained in which is the eye-watering figure of €600,000 now necessary to build a two-bedroom urban apartment.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In his recent piece for the Irish Times, Harry Goddard, CEO of Big Four firm Deloitte, argues that Ireland needs to build more data centres. He says this could generate the demand for a sufficient number of renewable energy projects to be built to help those facilities operate on a carbon neutral basis.
He joins Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock to explain why more data centres need to be built here, despite the large amount of electricity and water necessary to run them and the relatively small amount of people employed by them.
Also on the podcast, Eoin Burke Kennedy of The Irish Times outlines five key battlegrounds in the upcoming general election, which we now know will be held this year. He cites housing, spending overruns, the cost-of-living crisis, interest rates, and business failures.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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These are some very challenging times for retail and hospitality here, with news this week that men’s fashion retailer Alias Tom was placed into liquidation while high profile Dublin restaurant Shanahan’s on St Stephen’s Green closed, and Dillinger’s in Ranelagh will close in November after 16 years in operation.
On Tuesday, hundreds of hospitality, tourism, retail, and other small business owners protested in Dublin outside Leinster House about the increasing costs of doing business here, with many of those costs being Government imposed. The Restaurant Association of Ireland was one of the groups that organised that protest, and its CEO Adrian Cummins joins Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock to discuss the key issues raised at the protest, while Eoin Burke Kennedy of The Irish Times explains the backdrop to Alias Tom’s winding up this week.
At the end of last month, the Government announced that the much talked about auto enrolment private sector pension scheme would finally come into effect in September 2025.
A report in the Irish Independent suggested there could be a tax sting in the tail for those workers, following the release of the Finance Bill last week. Dominic Coyle, The Irish Times resident pensions expert, outlines what’s being proposed in the Finance Bill for auto enrolment.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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According to PwC’s quarterly insolvency barometer, the retail sector now accounts for one in four of all insolvencies so far this year. Hospitality is also being adversely affected with smaller operators more likely to fail.
Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Ken Tyrrell, business recovery partner at PwC Ireland, to go through their research and get a handle on how many more insolvencies are potentially in the pipeline as we head towards 2025.
Also on this week’s episode, Irish Times Work Correspondent Emmet Malone talks us through two industrial disputes affecting some big-name multinationals here with members of trade union Connect deferring a 24-hour work stoppage at a Meta data centre in Clonee on Monday. And separately, Unite trade union has warned of more pickets being placed on selected large construction sites around the country after strikes at an Intel site in Kildare.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Host Ciarán Hancock is joined by guests to pore over the main points of Budget 2025.
The €10.5 billion package has a range of measures, including the threshold for higher income tax rate rising to €44,000, the minimum wage gets an 80 cent bump to €13.50 an hour, the USC rate will be cut to three per cent, income credits will increase by €125, and a €12 weekly increase to welfare and pension payments.
On the panel:
Michael Rooney, EY Ireland Tax Partner
Elaine Dunne, chairperson of the Federation of Early Childhood providers
Cliff Taylor, Irish Times Managing Editor
Jenifer Bray, Irish Times Political Correspondent
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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On this week’s episode of Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock speaks with Bank of Ireland chief economist Conall MacCoille about their latest economic bulletin. It shows that almost 40 per cent of Irish housing transactions are now settled at a minimum 10 per cent premium above the original asking price, something Bank of Ireland puts down to “the intense competition for homes”.
Conall Mac Coille is author of the bulletin, and while he points to lack of supply and wage growth as factors driving house price inflation, he notes that we might be experiencing a peak at the moment. He also gives his thoughts ahead of next week’s budget and whether Ireland is insulated from the economic woes affecting Britain, Germany and the wider EU bloc.
Also on this episode, we hear from HR expert Louisa Meehan about return to the office trends in the wake of Amazon’s recent decision to order staff back to the workplace five days a week.
Is that likely to become a trend here? And is working from home potentially detrimental for younger employees at the outset of their careers?
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In his piece for the Irish Times earlier this week, CEO of Ibec Danny McCoy wrote about the ‘generational opportunity’ the next government will have to transform the country. Speaking with host Ciarán Hancock on this week’s episode of Inside Business, he explained how the key areas of infrastructure, education and energy strategy are central to maintaining a competitive economy here.
And in terms of the funding needed to address those three areas, McCoy warned against a long-term reliance on the current corporate tax bonanza, he instead suggested more taxation on the individual, a move he knows would be politically unpopular. And what about the €13 billion of Apple tax? Ibec’s chief suggested that Ireland could take the noble step of giving it to poorer countries who really need it.
Also on this episode, Irish Times Soccer Correspondent Gavin Cummiskey on the continuing financial struggles of the Football Association of Ireland as it finds itself still tens of millions in debt. Where does it leave League of Ireland clubs and emerging talent in a week where Dundalk FC had a near-death experience?
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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On this week’s episode of Inside Business we’re looking at the Apple tax judgement from the European Court of Justice with Joe Brennan. It was decided on Tuesday that the tech giant had enjoyed illegal State aid and the ECJ determined that Ireland should collect some €13 billion in back tax.
Joe Brennan has covered this saga over the past decade and joined host Ciarán Hancock on the line to discuss the story. What is the background to the case? How is the money likely to be spent? Will this impact foreign direct investment here?
Also on this week’s episode, we hear from Claire Nash who opened Nash 19 restaurant in 1992, going on a rollercoaster ride along with the ups and downs of the Irish economy. In January she pulled down the shutters after a succession of blows dealt by the pandemic, soaring inflation and the cost-of-living crisis. She discusses her reasons for closing, explains why a cup of coffee should really be costing €8 or €9 a pop, and offers her take on how the hospitality sector might be rescued via Government initiatives.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Reports last week highlighted the challenges in the commercial property market, particularly in the offices sector, with some prized assets receiving offers well below the sale prices attached by agents, with banks moving on some borrowers who find they are in breach of their covenants.
John McCartney is head of research at BNP Paribas Real Estate and follows the market closely. He joined host Ciarán Hancock in studio to discuss the latest moves in the commercial property market. He began by giving some context to what’s happening in the market in terms of valuations and how private equity firms and the banks are currently viewing their exposures.
In part two of this week’s episode of Inside Business we hear how a new survey from recruiter IrishJobs noted how AI is increasingly being used in hiring processes. This is happening on both sides of the equation, with candidates using it for their CVs and covering letters and by employers to sift through applications.
Ian Curran of The Irish Times reported on the survey and joined us on the line.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Inheritance tax has become something of a hot political issue, with hints of change coming in the budget supported by senior Fine Gael members who want to allow people to inherit more without being exposed to tax.
But is this justified? Does it simply improve the lot of the better off in society?
Or are there real anomalies that need to be addressed?
For some insight on this, host Cliff Taylor was joined by Deputy Business Editor of the Irish Times, Dominic Coyle.
In the second half of the show, Munro O’Dwyer, a partner with PwC Ireland, discusses potential changes to the current pension regime for high earners. PwC published a document earlier this week that points out some issues with the current €2 million standard fund threshold for pensions, something they want to see changed in the budget.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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If you’re trying to buy a home, a report this week from estate agent Sherry FitzGerald on house prices and available stock won’t have lifted your mood.
The supply of second-hand properties for sale in Ireland has fallen by almost a third since the pandemic, according to Sherry Fitz figures.
And it found that annual house price inflation was running at 5.5 per cent for the 12 months to the end of June, up from 3.4 per cent at the same time last year.
Figures from the CSO last week told a similar story.
On this episode of Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock picks through the latest data points with Marian Finnegan, managing director of Sherry Fitzgerald, and Eoin Burke Kennedy, economics correspondent with The Irish Times.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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The high price of electric cars has long been seen as a barrier for those looking to switch from the traditional combustion-engine car to an EV, but that is now changing with many car makers slashing their prices. But what is driving prices down and what impact will it have on the second-hand EV market here? Irish Times writer specialising in motoring Neil Briscoe explains.
And what of the broader picture for EV usage here, how do we compare to other countries and is charging infrastructure keeping pace? Brian Caulfield, Professor in Transportation & Head of Department at Trinity College Dublin gives his thoughts.
Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. This episode was originally published in February 2024.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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