Soaring energy costs and falling milk prices are causing “significant pain” for the Irish dairy industry, Lakeland Dairies chief executive Colin Kelly warned, even as his group reported a 10 per cent rise in sales last year, Ian Curran writes. Kelly welcomed the package of fuel reliefs announced this week but urged the Government to do more to protect farm incomes to avoid more disruptive protests over the coming weeks.
Also in the dairy sector, Ian reports that Kerrygold owner Ornua – of which Lakeland is one of eight shareholders – delivered an almost 5 per cent jump in operating profits last year, despite “highly challenging” trading conditions in its key US market, amid “tariff uncertainty”.
Writing on the world of work, Margaret Ward notes that Ireland may offer more generous time off to new parents than most countries, but the low level of financial support available means that many parents cannot afford to take it.
Modestly good news on house prices with the annualised rate of growth in prices dipping to 6.8 per cent in February, and to 5.6 per cent in Dublin. Colin Gleeson crunches the numbers.
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It comes as Gordon Deegan reports that listed housebuilder Cairn Homes lodges plans for a €372 million, 715-home scheme at Jamestown Business Park in Finglas, west Dublin, of which 142 apartments will be earmarked for social housing.
Sticking with housing, new rental rules that came into effect in March have led to a modest increase in the number of properties available on the market, according to property website Daft.ie, but availability still remains well below pre-COVID levels.
In Net Results, Emmet Ryan says the age of artificial intelligence (AI) has unfortunately only made it tougher for anyone to see through the gloom and, among other things, work out what was and was not accurate as tensions heightened on Irish roads last week.
Profits at Ikea’s Irish business more than doubled last year to €16.2 million despite what the company called a “challenging economic backdrop”, writes Colin Gleeson, with sales only inching up 0.36 per cent to €247.3 million.
The chief executive of a cybersecurity business has said a former employee’s claims about a supplier having links to Israeli military intelligence were “James Bond stuff”. The WRC has yet to decide.
Medical device group Boston Scientific announced a further €75 million investment in its Irish business, with the company saying the money would drive expansion of research and development capabilities at its Galway operation, which employs around 4,500 people.
Also investing is HCS, a Waterford-based managed IT services company, which hopes to more than treble employment to 175 people as it looks to expand aggressively. Ian Curran reports.
Not such good news on jobs at the BBC which, the Financial Times reports, is looking to cut as many as one in 10 roles across the organisation in a radical downsizing that could see 2,000 people leave the broadcaster.
PwC is also reorganising as it overhauls its global consulting business in a bid to eliminate the sometimes disjointed service when its national firms work together, which bosses view as a disadvantage against more tightly integrated rivals.
On this week’s episode of Inside Business, host Ciarán Hancock speaks to Mayo entrepreneur Ciaran Crean, co-founder of Micksgarage.com, which sells car parts online, but has also spun out a couple of businesses, including WaveOMS, which provides software to Irish retailers looking to fulfil their online orders.
Also, on Inside Business, Irish Fiscal Advisory Council chairman Seamus Coffey discusses the Government’s €505 million package of supports in response to last week’s fuel protests. Is this money well spent? And is it now a case that those who shout loudest will be appeased by the Government?
In Innovation this week, we talk to James Murphy, a cofounder of Setanta Space Systems which has developed a cutting-edge solution designed to ease the growing congestion high above the Earth.
Finally, a number of Irish entrepreneurs, academics and actors have made the latest Forbes 30 Under 30 list, spanning everything from artificial intelligence to beauty products. They include The Smooth Company founder Áine Kennedy, Laura Murphy who set up Oatco and biotech entrepreneur Donnacha Fitzgerald who is designing tougher T-cells that resist exhaustion during cancer therapy.
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