For this week’s episode, host Ciarán Hancock Is joined by an expert panel to look forward to 2026. After another record-breaking year for corporate tax receipts, is there now a real threat of concentration risk in the Irish economy? A huge amount of money has been raised and spent on AI, but where is it at in terms of its development? When will inv…

For this episode of Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock is joined by a panel of experts to discuss the major stories of 2025. A busy year in markets was dominated by US president Donald Trump’s threats to impose huge tariffs on the United States’ trading partners, including Ireland. Ireland’s housing crisis showed no sign of improvement with compl…

On this week’s episode of Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Chairman of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (Ifac) Seamus Coffey to discuss his concerns on how the Government is spending our corporation tax windfall. Ifac were this week in front of the Oireachtas Budgetary Committee giving its view on how that windfall is being spent.…

The latest report from the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland shows that only the top 20 per cent of earners can afford to rent an average apartment built in Ireland in 2025, while just the top 40 per cent of earners can afford to buy one. Paul Mitchell, a chartered quantity surveyor and one of the authors of the Real Costs of New Apartment Del…

On this week’s episode of Inside Business, we look at the sluggish delivery of large and necessary infrastructure projects that has been a feature of several successive Governments. A population surge means building more and better infrastructure for transport, water and housing has become increasingly urgent. The Government unveiled a new plan thi…

On this week’s Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by senior lecturer in housing at TUD Dublin, Lorcan Sirr. The episode starts with some recent good news, that the net wealth of Irish households is nearly €1.3 trillion, or an average of €228,000 each. Sounds good but as Lorcan explains, this is an illusion. He argues that Irel…

On this week’s episode of Inside Business, we look at the role of AI in the hiring and firing of workers. Host Ciarán Hancock is joined on the podcast by Ciara O’Brien of the Irish Times to discuss why Amazon recently announced 14,000 job cuts globally as it seeks to trim expenses. Is this being driven solely by AI? Well, in an update to staff in J…

This week on Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by Gary McGann, a grandee of Irish business whose many roles included being chief executive of drinks group Gilbeys, Aer Lingus and packaging group Smurfit. Born and raised in Dublin, Gary actually began his career in the civil service, with the Comptroller & Auditor General. He s…

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…