Uncertainty over the ability to secure agreements to connect to the national grid could lead to an exodus of data centres from Ireland, electricity network operator Eirgrid warned IDA Ireland last year, according to documents secured by Ken Foxe. The grid operator also advised against planners insisting that data centres be “zero carbon”, arguing that it was impossible.
Aer Lingus may be struggling with the cap imposed on slots at Dublin Airport but that hasn’t stopped the airline announcing an ambitious expansion of winter routes, with more frequent and year round flights to some popular destinations and three new routes. Barry O’Halloran has the details.
Former top banker Tidjane Thiam, who hopes to run for president in his native Ivory Coast, sued his housekeeper for blackmail after she sought to get money she said she was owed when he let her go. A Swiss court has now ruled in ruled in favour of the unidentified Romanian housekeeper.
Ireland finds itself uncomfortably at the centre of a decade-long dispute between Coca-Cola and the US tax authorities, which has now escalated to the point that the company could owe $16 billion (€14.7 billion) in back taxes, enough to wipe out a year and a half of profits.
Public relations advisers in Ireland have been issued with their first set of industry-wide guidelines on the “effective and ethical” use of artificial intelligence (AI) as part of their work, with an emphasis on caution, writes Laura Slattery
In Cantillon, our writers examine how cheerleading the green transition is much harder when you have to take the short-term hit in investor returns it involves as commodities trading giant Glencore has discovered. We also look at the ceiling on statutory redundancy pay which, being unchanged for almost 20 years, is increasingly unfair on people who are already losing their livelihood.
In her column, Karlin Lillington argues that the tech sector is paying the price for abandoning the notion of real innovation as doubts grow over when AI will pay back the huge investment being made, tech giants are facing increasing pressure from antitrust cases and bellwether stocks like Intel are just a shadow of their former selves.
Ciara O’Brien charts the long demise of Intel which began with, what in hindsight, has been shown to be a spectacularly bad decision under Paul Otellini to play hardball on pricing for iPhone chips 18 years ago. Steve Jobs walked away and things have just got worse from there.
In Innovation, Neil Briscoe looks at the impact of Amazon Web Services, the group’s bespoke computing department, on Formula 1 where its use of cloud-based technology is helping to analyse what is happening in real time on the track.
And finally, when Covid hit, the hospitality sector shutdown left Ashford Castle-based Gráinne Mullins with the time to pursue her dream of setting up her own business. The pandemic rush to online buying helped keep costs down as she experimented with her artisan chocolates. Now Grá Chocolates is looking to invest €1 million Mullins dream of a chocolate factory and visitor centre.
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