Insurance industry warning, new chair at Hometree and the dangers of DNA testing

The Republic’s attractiveness as a base for international insurance companies is declining, due to issues with regulation and a tight labour market, a new report has warned, reports Ellen O’Regan. The report also notes that the imminent departure of both the largest international non-life insurer and one of the largest international life insurers in the Irish market will have a “substantial impact on future premium volumes”.

A breach of sensitive user data from DNA company 23andMe last week has clearly demonstrated that spitting into a small plastic tube can have unforeseen and disturbing consequences, writes Karlin Lillington in her weekly column.

Home energy services company Hometree has appointed former DCC chief executive Tommy Breen, as its new chairman, writes Ciara O’Brien. Mr Breen led DCC for nine years from 2008, overseeing a doubling in the company’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to more than £450 million and a 650 per cent increase in its share price. He later went on to serve as chairman of HomeServe, before its 2022 sale to Brookfield.

One of the primary economic head scratchers, writes Cantillon, of recent months has been the resilience of labour markets, consumer spending and headline growth in the face of 10 consecutive interest rate hikes from the European Central Bank, the biggest ever monetary policy tightening exercise undertaken by Frankfurt.

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Organising corporate events can be a thankless task with a lot of time spent trawling the internet for new ideas and potential suppliers. As a member of the cultural committee when he worked for Greenhouse Software, Donnchadh Healy had first-hand experience of the pain points and quickly realised that the market needed a one-stop shop that connected companies with potential suppliers for corporate events, writes Olive Keogh.

Cantillon also notes that while much of the budget was artfully leaked well before Minister for Finance Michael McGrath stood up in the Dáil on Tuesday, one issue that had not been cleared up in advance was the future of the bank levy.

Budget 2024: What it means for households and businesses

Listen | 37:33

The genetic modification that the California team is proposing will be susceptible to the same evolutionary pressures as every other mosquito intervention: That is, nature will find a way around the modification the same way mosquitoes develop resistance to insecticides. The malaria parasite will eventually develop resistance to get around the modification making the mosquito immune. Stephanie Nolen and Natalija Gormalova report.

Ciara O’Brien reviews Onanoff’s StoryPhones which are bluetooth headphones with a twist – they play stories directly on the headphones through the use of swappable discs that attach to the earcup, called StoryShields. These are themed – Toy Story, for example, or Frozen – which means you can dispense with the smartphone and screen for your child, while still giving them some independence and control over their own entertainment.

Can AI be taught to not stray from its ethical guardrails? Madhumita Murgia hears that “we have to start treating generative AI as extensions of humans. They are just another aspect of humanity.”

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