Inside Business with Ciaran Hancock

Ciarán Hancock is joined by guests to pore over the main elements of Budget 2026. The €9.4 billion package includes a minimum wage increase of 65c to €14.15c per hour, a €10 across-the-board increase to core weekly welfare payments, but no once-offs like double child benefit payments and electricity credits. On the panel:Cliff Taylor, Managing Editor, The Irish TimesFrank O’Neill, Tax Partner, EY IrelandSean Collender, President of the Restaurants Association of IrelandEllen Coyne, Political Correspondent, The Irish Times Produced by John Casey.

Ireland’s national soccer team will slide down the international rankings unless significant investment is made in the League of Ireland’s academy system, according to the league’s director Mark Scanlon.He has submitted a proposal to the Department of Finance ahead of Tuesday’s budget requesting €4m annually, rising to €8m after two years to be spread across Ireland’s 26 soccer academies.Mr Scanlon said the system in Ireland remains heavily reliant on volunteers, stunting the sport’s growth despite years of strong audiences and revenues.His plan includes three new full-time roles directing academy soccer across Ireland.On today’s podcast Ciarán Hancock is joined by Mr Scanlon and Irish Times Soccer Correspondent Gavin Cummiskey.Produced by Declan Conlon and Andrew McNair, with JJ Vernon on sound. 

The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park this weekend in the first regular-season NFL game to take place on Irish shores.Dublin is now part of a growing roster of cities outside the United States hosting lucrative NFL games. Irishman Paul Holland has worked in the sports marketing industry for many years and has charted the financial rise of the NFL and how it dwarfs other sports. He joined host Ciarán Hancock in studio to discuss the financial impact of this game coming to Dublin. Plus, last week Donald Trump surprised us all by slapping a $100,000 fee on a key foreign worker visa used by Big Tech companies in Silicon Valley. Colin Gleeson covered the story and joined Ciarán in studio to discuss its implications for Big Tech firms and for Irish workers based in Silicon Valley. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

First up on the Inside Business podcast this week, the rift between the board of the DAA, the State-owned operator of Dublin and Cork airports, and its CEO Kenny Jacobs. The Irish Times reported yesterday that a deal has been agreed between the two sides that will see Jacobs leave his role early with a €1m exit package. Joe Brennan and Martin Wall of The Irish Times have been covering the story and joined host Ciarán Hancock in studio to discuss the background to the rift. Also on the podcast, Conor Pope, Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent, discusses new research from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, which shows that one in four Irish adults have no financial arrangements in place for their retirement. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

With the budget just under a month away, what will ministers Paschal Donohoe and Jack Chambers deliver on October 7th?The one-off cost-of-living measures of recent budgets may be discontinued, but what will be in their place to help families feeling the pinch? Will there be tax cuts? And what can renters and those looking to buy a home expect?Cliff Taylor of The Irish Times joined host Ciarán Hancock in studio to discuss.Plus, the three main Irish banks this week launched Zippay, an instant payments feature that they hope will launch next year. But will it be enough to win the battle with Revolut for Irish people’s digital wallets, especially as Revolut already has 3m Irish customers.Irish digital banking expert and CEO at InclusionFS, Brian Carroll, has helped to launch neobanks in a number of countries and he joined Ciarán on the line to discuss the timing of the launch and whether the Irish banks can beat Revolut at their own game.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon.

First up on Inside Business this week is the plight of independent Irish breweries, who, like so many now, are finding the cost of doing business to be far too high.This is despite an explosion in the popularity of craft beers here in the last decade. What costs are forcing some operators out of business? How are they coping with competition from far larger, commercial breweries? And will these increasing costs be passed onto consumers?To get into all this, host Cliff Taylor was joined by Irish Times Business Reporter Hugh Dooley and founder and chief executive of the Carlow Brewing Company, Seamus O’Hara.Plus, it’s a deal decades in the making and would seem to make sense in the context of the aggressive tariffs imposed on the EU and Latin American countries by Donald Trump. And the expectation is that the EU Commission will try to ratify the Mercosur trade deal despite push back from several EU countries, not least Ireland. But why is the trade deal so divisive and what impact could it have here if it goes ahead? Irish Times acting Europe Correspondent Jack Power joined Cliff on the line from Brussels.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

The predictably slow delivery of infrastructure here has a raft of negative consequences, not least how it undermines our competitiveness in a very challenging global environment.So why are vital projects so slow to get over the line? How does Government prioritise one project over another? And what can be done to streamline the planning process?To get into the causes and some potential solutions to these issues, host Cliff Taylor was joined by chair of the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council Frances Ruane.And from air fryers and skiing gear in the middle isle, to expanding into manufacturing and shipping, Lidl, part of the Schwarz Group, has evolved hugely from its early days of obsessive penny-pinching efficiency and prices written in pencil.In part two of this week’s Inside Business, Irish Times Berlin Correspondent Derek Scally joined Cliff on the line to discuss how this evolution and success has been achieved, and the influence of, among other things, Irish consumer habits.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

The Economist magazine recently published its annual country rich list. Ireland was nowhere to be found on the list in spite of the fact that we are constantly being told that Ireland is one of the world’s richest countries. Host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by Cliff Taylor of The Irish Times to talk about how rich we all are, or not as the case may be, and the measures that ruled Ireland out of consideration. Also on Inside Business this week, Conor Pope of The Irish Times discusses the companies that consumers complain about the most to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. Who are they? What are the most common complaints? And how much out of pocket are consumers as a result of their bad experiences? Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.

This week Inside Business is looking at tourism. Data from the Central Statistics Office earlier this year suggested that the number of visitors to the country had fallen off a cliff. Not so said the industry, while acknowledging that the market was a bit soft compared with the past two years of trading.Joining host Ciarán Hancock in studio to discuss this is Paul Gallagher, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation and Sean O’Driscoll, chief executive of iNua hotels, one of the biggest hospitality groups in the country.They tease out the issue of the 9% Vat rate, with some strong criticisms of the Department of Finance from Sean. They also talk about the slow death of food and beverage in the country, the Dublin airport passenger cap, AI’s increasing use in the business and hotel prices around the Oasis concerts. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.