Breakfast Business

The financial services company SEI is opening its biggest European office near Harcourt Street and more than doubling its 400 staff numbers here.  The company said it picked Dublin for staff retention purposes.  SEI specialises in areas including investment processing, operations and asset management. Speaking to Joe this morning was Bryan Astheimer who is the Head of SEI’s Investment Managers Business for EMEA.

Zoom is trialing using an avatar of you to attend their platform meetings. Newstalk's Technology Correspondent Jess Kelly brings us the details.

The Irish Civil service simply doesn’t ‘get’ entrepreneurs. That is one of the claims made by the business lender GRID finance. Is there any way we can change the culture within the civil service and the investment community? With banks unwilling to lend to many start-ups and very weak capital markets in Ireland, many Irish SME‘s turn to non-bank lenders to get their funding. Derek Butler is the chief executive of GRID Finance and Derek joined Joe in studio this morning.

A "game-changing moment" is how the boss of the new settlement body between the big online platforms and their users was described.  The new out-of-court agency hopes to be the place to arbitrate on decisions to take down or leave up content users believe is hate speech, incitement to violence or other categories deemed unacceptable.  The Appeals Centre Europe, which was set up as part of the EU’s new DSA legislation, will be based in Ireland and joinng Joe on the show was its Chief Executive is Thomas Hughes.

Joe Lynam takes a run through Thursday's business news headlines.

The Government has announced a new grant scheme for companies called Power Up. It means SMEs who have seen a significant surge in energy costs since 2022 can get a grant worth up to €4000 supposedly this side of Christmas. Joe asked Enterprise Minister Peter Burke how the money would be allocated and whether it would be an easier process than the last energy support scheme for businesses. 

Joe Lynam takes a run through Wednesday's business headlines.

What do Mace, Power City and GoMo have in common?  They are all among the biggest fallers in the customer experience charts this year. According to the annual CXi study of perceptions towards major brands in Ireland.  The credit unions remain at the top when it comes to customer service - followed by the likes of Dunnes, McCabes pharmacies and An Post.  Needless to say Ticketmaster didn't finish so well in the study.  Gerard O’Neill from Amárach research which carried out the study joined Joe on the show this morning.

 Having a home office is something that is definitely appealing for those who work from home a lot.  But how about a home sauna in your back garden or a pod if you're lucky enough to own land and want to rent it out.  There’s an Estonian company on the market now in Ireland called ÖÖD and they offer high end solutions for outdoor living or working and Matthew Parkinson from ÖÖD House joined Joe this morning on the show.

We take a look through Tuesday's business news headlines.

Joe Lynam looks through Monday's business news headlines.

In last week’s budget, the government said it would use the €3bn from the sale of AIB shares to boost Ireland’s creaking infrastructure notably Housing, energy and Water. Kaine Lynch is the Director of Infrastructure with the consultants Turner & Townsend  advises others how best to build big infrastructure projects such as motorways such as the infamous A5 road in Northern Ireland or underground railway lines like Metrolink.

A study from MyHome.ie suggests that we would need another 200,000 homes to have the same ratio of homes to population that the UK already has.  It follows, therefore, that asking prices for property are rising by 7.5% over the past 12 months with one in 7 homes selling now for 20% above the asking price. Conall Mac Coille is chief economist with Bank of Ireland and author of the MyHome Property report. 

Economist Austin Hughes takes a run through Friday's business news and markets.

The advertising agency BBH has made many famous commercials over the years including the famous Levis commercial in the laundrette with Nick Camen.  But how do these agencies work and how do they persuade companies to take risks? To explain all Joe was joined on the show by Karen Martin the Chief Executive of BBH Ireland. 

Ministers within the European Union will vote on whether to impose swingeing tariffs on Chinese made electric Cars. They were found to have been subsidised by Beijing earlier this year.  The problem is China may respond with trade sanctions on European products including goods from Ireland, which could set off a trade war.  Finbarr Bermingham from the South China Morning post joined Joe this morning to discuss the details about the vote today.

There was a time when mobile phones were new and people had to drive to be near masts in order to get a reliable signal.  Nowadays they carry a lot more than just mobile signals and they prefer to be called mobile infrastructure or Towers.  Vodafone is the first operator to sign a deal with Vantage Towers to carry renewable energy from Flogas to power their stores as well as their telecoms infrastructure. It’s called a Corporate Power Purchase Agreement and Brian McHugh, Managing Director of Vantage towers. 

Recently we spoke about Hydrotreated Vegetable oil as an alternative, cleaner fuel for companies and households. But what about Biomethane or Bio Compressed natural gas made from food and animal waste?  It cuts nasty emissions for trucks by 90% and Flogas is already one of the companies offering Bio CNG a filling station.Paddy Phelan from South East Energy Agency wrote a report into Bio CNG and Paddy joined Joe this morning on the show.

Joe Lynam takes a run through Thursday's main business headlines this morning.

To look back on what Budget 25 brought we were broadcasting live from the very well appointed HQ of Grant Thornton on City Quay. Joining Joe with analysis was Andrew Webb the Chief Economist and Robert Fitzgerald Tax Partner with Grant Thornton.