Podcast
Inside Business with Ciaran Hancock
Hosted by Inside Business with Ciaran Hancock · EN
A weekly look at business and economics from an Irish perspective hosted by Irish Times Business Editor Ciarán Hancock. Produced in association with EY.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Episodes
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Trump’s tariffs: “The rest of the world is now going to de-risk from the United States”
Apr 9, 202500:46:35Tap to summarizeA full-blown global tariff war in underway.Donald’s Trump’s tariffs took effect last night with the EU due to vote today on a retaliatory list drawn up by the European Commission.The US and China meanwhile have engaged in tit for tat tariffs in the past few days. China has also vowed to fight to the end in the tariff war.What will all this mean for Ireland? What hit will consumers face?And should Ireland now pivot east to protect jobs and secure new investment?To answer these and other questions host Ciarán Hancock Is joined on this week’s episode of Inside Business by Ibec chief executive Danny McCoy, Cliff Taylor of The Irish Times, and Chris Smyth, group CEO at Perennial Freight & president of the France-Ireland Chamber of Commerce.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →What is behind Ireland’s tourism slowdown?
Apr 2, 202500:35:52Tap to summarizeLast week data from the CSO showed a decline of 30 per cent in the number of visitors to the country in February, with revenue taking a hit of €88 million during the month.This continued a trend dating back to last September.In this week’s episode of Inside Business, you’ll hear conflicting views from the trade on the current state of the tourism sector here.Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, CEO of the Irish Tourist Industry Confederation, tells host Ciarán Hancock why he thinks the CSO figures might be overstating the current position within the sector.Whereas Sean Connick, who operates the Dunbrody Famine Ship Experience and the Kennedy Homestead in Co Wexford, is seeing a different picture with visitor numbers to those experiences declining last year with January and February also soft.In addition, he has had to absorb significant increases in their running costs.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →What damage is Elon Musk doing to Tesla’s shares and sales?
Mar 26, 202500:23:45Tap to summarizeIn the first part of this week’s episode of Inside Business, we look at Tesla and the backlash against the vehicle car maker this year because of Elon Musk’s association with Donald Trump.Sales in Europe have slumped while its share price has shed 24 per cent of its value year to date. That amounts to about $800 billion of market value being wiped out.In addition, there have been many protests and reports of Tesla’s being vandalised.To add to the mix, Chinese rivals have also upped their game.Neil Briscoe is a motoring journalist and writes for the Irish Times. He’s been covering Tesla since the get-go and joined host Ciarán Hancock on the line to discuss the issues affecting the company.Also on the show, Eoin Burke Kennedy, economics correspondent of The Irish Times, discusses new data on house prices from Daft.ie after it published its latest quarterly report. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture for anyone seeking to buy a home, with house price pressure reaching an eight-year high and the number of second-hand properties available for sale at lowest level since 2007.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →What do Donald Trump’s April tariffs mean for Ireland?
Mar 19, 202500:38:28Tap to summarizeOn this week’s episode of Inside Business, we discuss US President Donald Trump’s intention to impose new reciprocal tariff rates on EU countries and elsewhere from April 2nd. What are reciprocal tariffs and how will Ireland be affected? Will we be singled out? What is coming down the line in terms of ‘special tariffs’, and their potential impact on big exports from Ireland to the US? And what possible options are available to Irish companies to soften the blow of all this uncertainty? Gerard Brady, Head of National Policy and Chief Economist at Ibec, joined the podcast to give a timeline of all upcoming tariffs and what they mean.And this week saw the much-anticipated arrival of Amazon.ie, a dedicated Irish platform for the retail behemoth – a move that will be welcomed by most online shoppers in Ireland with the prospect of more product choice and better value. But what about retailers who will have to go toe-to-toe with Amazon here? Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent Conor Pope joined host Cliff Taylor in studio to outline what Irish consumers can expect.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →‘My plan is to make sure Smurfit Westrock is one of the great companies of the world’: Tony Smurfit on taking the family business global
Mar 12, 202500:45:06Tap to summarizeThis week, Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock is joined by Tony Smurfit, president and CEO of Smurfit WestRock, the biggest paper and packaging group in the world.Last month he was chosen as Irish Times business person of the year for successfully concluding a combination of Smurfit Kappa Group with American company WestRock in a $24 billion deal. The Dublin-based company is now the leading player in its sector.Grandson of the company’s original founding father Jefferson Smurfit, and son of Michael Smurfit who grew the company to become Ireland’s first multinational, Tony has led the business since 2015.During this episode Tony discusses the impact of the WestRock deal on the group over the past nine months, the threat posed by Donald Trump’s tariffs, the special challenges of working for a company where your name is above the door, and his plan to make Smurfit WestRock the best company in the world.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →“The retailer is now facing dramatically increased costs”: Leo Crawford, former CEO of BWG Group
Mar 5, 202500:59:47Tap to summarizeThis week’s guest on Inside Business is Leo Crawford, who recently stepped down as the head of BWG Group after nearly 40 years with the business.BWG is a wholesale group at heart that supplies groceries to a large network of shops in Ireland and the southwest of England under a variety of retail brands, including Spar, Eurospar, Mace and Londis.Leo will recall the boom times of the Celtic Tiger years, through a couple of management-led buyouts, to almost losing control of the business post the 2008 crash.BWG ultimately bounced back to become the €2 billion a year business that it is today.He also has some tips for young business leaders and entrepreneurs, you’ll hear him compare retailing in Ireland and the UK and prices on both sides of the Irish sea, and talk about the growing levels of shop lifting and abuse targeted against small retailers and how these might be tackled.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Publican Noel Anderson on Grand Slam Bars, taking on Guinness and the rising price of a pint
Feb 26, 202500:42:46Tap to summarizeThis week host Ciarán Hancock is joined in studio by Dublin publican and Managing Director of Grand Slam Bars, Noel Anderson.The pub group is jointly owned by former Irish rugby internationals Rob Kearney, his brother David, Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien.They own the Bridge bar in Ballsbridge, the Blackrock pub in the Dublin coastal suburb, the Lemon & Duke and Little Lemon in the city centre and its most recent purchase, McSorley’s in Ranelagh.Noel is also a shareholder in the Changing Times Brewery set up by a group of leading Irish publicans to produce a range of local stouts and other beers.Noel’s career in the pub trade began as a teenager and has involved a number of highs and lows. This included allegations of money laundering at one of his former venues, which yielded a financial settlement but only after years of legal wrangling. He talks to me about that extraordinary case, along with the current challenges of running pubs in Ireland and securing insurance against Covid lockdowns just weeks before the pandemic hit here.We also discuss the rising price of a pint and taking on Guinness in the stout market, and why he feels Dublin city centre needs an extra 1000 Gardai on the street to counter anti-social behaviour.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →“Landing Google really put us on the map”: Karl Brophy on the success and sale of Red Flag
Feb 19, 202501:01:26Tap to summarizeEarlier this month, Red Flag Global, an Irish-based strategic communications firm was acquired by New York-based Ankura Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm.The financial details weren’t revealed but it is understood that the price tag on the deal was €45 million.Founded in 2013 by Karl Brophy, the company was chaired by Gavin O’Reilly, son of Tony O’Reilly and a former chief executive of Independent News & Media.Karl joins host Ciarán Hancock on this episode of the Inside Business podcast to discuss his career that began as a Fine Gael press officer before stints covering politics for the Daily Mirror and the Irish Examiner.He later went to work as a journalist and editor with INM, including a six-year stint editing an edgy tabloid title in South Africa.In January 2011 he was appointed as Director of Corporate Affairs and Content Development at INM, reporting to Gavin O’Reilly.It was a turbulent period in the history of the company, with a well-publicised battle for control of the business between the O’Reilly family and Denis O’Brien, who became a major shareholder.Karl left INM in October 2012, setting up Red Flag just months later.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →How does Ireland fix its dysfunctional rental sector?
Feb 12, 202500:43:34Tap to summarizeIn the past week, Taoiseach Micheal Martin has suggested that the Rent Pressure Zone system could be scrapped and that tax breaks could be introduced to help incentivise developers to build more apartments and houses.Would these measures make rents more affordable for tenants? Or boost the supply of affordable new homes?To tease out this tricky political issue, Inside Business host Ciarán Hancock was joined in studio by Dublin-based estate agent Owen Reilly and on the line by Michelle Norris, who is director of the Geary Institute for Public Policy at UCD and was a member of the Housing Commission.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcribe →Are we at the beginning of Donald Trump’s global trade war?
Feb 5, 202500:30:59Tap to summarizeAt the start of this week US President Donald Trump took the global economy into uncharted territory by threatening a multi-front trade war.After last-minute negotiations on Monday, hefty tariffs for Canada and Mexico were suspended for 30 days. China then saw a 10% duty imposed on their imports into the US and retaliated soon after with their own tariffs on US energy and vehicles.The EU is also in Donald Trump’s sights, but it is unclear as to what kind of concessions he will want. Ireland is quite exposed in all this as bilateral trade with the US is hugely important - what could this all mean for our main exports and our country’s foreign direct investment?To get into the potential ramifications for Ireland and the wider global economy, host Cliff Taylor is joined by Irish Times Economic Correspondent, Eoin Burke-Kennedy, Irish Times China Correspondent, Denis Staunton and Professor of International Politics at the Clinton Institute in UCD, Scott Lucas.Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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