Inside Business with Ciaran Hancock

On this week’s episode, host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by the Irish Times economics experts Cliff Taylor and Eoin Burke-Kennedy.Tensions are rising between US President Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve. Trump has made it very clear that he is no fan of Fed chief Jerome Powell who is due to step down from his post in May, and that he wants the Fed to be more aggressive with interest rate cuts to stimulate the economy.Those tensions ratcheted up considerably when the US Department of Justice opened an investigation into Powell, and his handling of a $2.5 billion renovation of the central bank’s headquarters.Powell has publicly pushed back and warned the independence of the Fed is at stake, and senior central bank figures from around the world have also expressed their support for Powell. Cliff and Eoin also look at Ireland’s decision to vote against the Mercosur trade deal at EU level, it is still going to go through of course, but voting against it has led to charges of hypocrisy given all the talk from Government about Ireland being a small open economy that relies on the free movement of trade and services.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

2025 proved to be a record year for tax receipt figures, with the total hitting €106bn.This was despite extensive warnings about the State’s precarious position due to Donald Trump’s series of tariffs, and the number of big multinationals that use Ireland as an export base.It was another bumper year for corporation tax receipts as they exceeded expectations, but perhaps the non-corporation tax take offers the clearest insight into how Ireland’s economic growth will progress as we start 2026.For analysis of the numbers, host Cliff Taylor is joined in studio by chief economist at Davy, Kevin Timoney.Also on this week’s Inside Business, we look at how new EV sales increased last year to overtake diesel, a massive turnaround from 2023 and 2024, which saw EV sales plummet.Will this trend continue? Can charging infrastructure start to meet demand? And what’s being done to increase road safety? Irish Times Motoring Editor Michael McAleer gives his take on the trends hitting Irish roads in 2026.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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 investors start looking for a tangible return?And will Donald Trump turn his attention back to economic matters after moves to end the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine? Could more tariffs be on the way in 2026?The panel comprises CEO of the Sherry Fitzgerald Group, Marian Finnegan, tech entrepreneur and columnist at the Irish Times, Chris Horn, and Irish Times Economics Correspondent, Eoin Burke-Kennedy.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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 completions trending well below Government targets.And another record-breaking year for corporate tax receipts, coupled with Ireland's gross domestic product (GDP) growing exceptionally by over 10%, meant that the economy is in rude health as we head into 2026.The panel comprises Aidan Donnelly, Head of Global Equities at Davy, Susan Hayes Culleton, Managing Director, HayesCulleton Group, and Cliff Taylor of the Irish Times.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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 corporation tax receipts for November topped €10 billion, the highest figure ever generated in a single month, with the overall figure for the year expected to hit a record €32 billion.Ifac argues that the Government is not saving enough of this bounty for a rainy day. Just 15 per cent of the projected €34 billion of corporation tax receipts for next year will effectively be squirreled away. That is just half the level of this year and was described as “risky” by Ifac.This week Fiona Reddan was writing about 50-year mortgages and posed the question as to whether they might be a solution to help first-time buyers here get on the property ladder.Donald Trump has described them as a potential “game changer”, but are they a good idea?Joey Sheahan is head of credit at MyMortgages.ie and he joined Ciarán to outline whether 50-year mortgages were worth considering here.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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 Delivery report, joins host Ciarán Hancock and Cliff Taylor of the Irish Times to drill down into the main findings of the report.And despite the numerous Government interventions, the cost of building apartments has soared in recent years, but Paul Mitchell is adamant that this report is actually a good news story.Produced by John with JJ Vernon on sound.

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 this week. The Accelerating Infrastructure Taskforce contains 30 actions and deadlines by which projects have to be completed.This comes at a time when there are legal delays to the Greater Dublin Drainage project, and potentially to the capital’s MetroLink too.To get some insight into whether a plan like this can address the key issues holding back delivery, host Cliff Taylor was joined on the line by taskforce member and Chairperson of IDA Ireland, Feargal O’Rourke.Also in this episode, Irish Times Deputy Business Editor Dominic Coyle on the new pension auto-enrolment scheme 'My Future Fund' which begins on 1 January. How many employees will be opted in? Are companies ready? What are the concerns of employer groups like Ibec? And are employers already gaming the system?Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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 Ireland isn’t really a wealthy country in spite of what the statistics tell us. Lorcan also touches on the housing crisis in its many forms and goes through some possible solutions. And he does have some solutions. He also explains why he thinks judicial reviews of planning decisions haven’t caused the housing crisis. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

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 June, Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy stated the company would reduce jobs in some areas while it hired in others. And more AI would mean fewer corporate staff at Amazon, with the slack being picked up by generative AI and high-tech agents. Separately, we have new research from hiring platform Greenhouse which suggests that AI has created a ‘doom loop’ between applicants and those who are hiring. Irish Times Work Correspondent Emmet Malone explains the issue, along with the new phenomenon of fake job postings. Plus, Ciarán is joined in studio by Darryl Byrne, Chief Executive of Irish stock exchange operator Euronext Dublin, to discuss the future of the market here and a proposal he has put forward to introduce a future-focused SIA (Savings Investment Account).Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.