Our testers took a look at the new Pixel 10a. See more about it here, retailing for 559 euros.

Google's new Pixel 10a reviewed

It is here, out, snazzy, small, with lots of good things inside. As with the 9a, and previous 'a' iterations of the Pixel phone series, you get a lot of the benefits and attractions of the flagship version of the device. The price is significantly lower however, so for many the pros outweigh the cons, and for what you are paying for, you are getting a lot that is good value for the price.

With the Pixel 10a, perhaps more so than some over 'a' reviews, this is a significant element to consider, because in many ways it is not significantly different to the 9a. Therefore this may well not be the upgrade that a 9a user is looking for. However, and our own inhouse user experience would back this up, we are still comfortably using a Pixel 8 for our day to day operations. Therefore, if you have something earlier than the 9 range, then this could be a great upgrade, where you would quickly, and happily recognise the improvements and updates.

There are some actual, subtle changes from the 9a, the camera is now flush with the camera, so that it sits flat on the desk, if that is how you use it. The edges and sides of the phone are also much, much closer to being smooth, rather than sticking out, if that was also something that got your goat. With this being a Google device of course, it is really on the inside, with the software, rather than the hardware where all the good things are happening. The fact that they are offering seven years of updates included too suggests that they plan for this to be around for awhile and give you a good user life. If you can avoid dropping or breaking these phones, they do seem to have pretty good physical durability especially once you get it into a case as well.

With these elements considered, this could well be a great phone for the right buyer and user. Our team liked it, were happy to give it a thumbs up, while also wondering what will be coming down the line. The zoom could be a little better for example, but overall, another good piece of kit.

More about the Pixel 10a

Powered by Google Tensor, with AI features and Gemini

Pixel 10a is powered by our custom-built Google Tensor G4 chip, giving you total access to

Gemini — your personal AI assistant. You can do things like use Gemini Live to have natural,

back-and-forth conversations. Or play with Nano Banana to reimagine your photos, blend images together or apply different creative styles to make them your own.

Pixel 10a's refined smooth design features a completely flat back. The camera bar blends seamlessly with the back of the phone, so it easily slips in and out of your pocket, and lies perfectly flat wherever you place it. Designed with sustainability in mind, Pixel 10a is made with the most recycled material of any A-series Pixel yet, including for the first time recycled cobalt, copper, gold and tungsten. It has a satin-finish 100% recycled aluminium frame and an 81% recycled plastic back cover.

Get more with Google Pixel 10a, brilliant photography, a durable design and helpful AI. Pixel 10a is the newest member of the Pixel 10 family, with a fresh design and vibrant new colours – plus the same Pixel promise. It comes with 8 GB of RAM and Tensor G4, custom built for Pixel to power all you do. There's a ton of value packed into this phone. From the front to the back, we've engineered every part with the consumer in mind, bringing Pixel experiences at a great price. Pixel 10a also comes with three months of YouTube Premium and three months of Google One.

Pixel 10a's dual camera system is made up of a 48 MP main camera and a 13 MP ultrawide camera. Take amazing photos, capturing crisp details up close and in low light with features of the Google Pixel 10a camera. Snap beautiful shots easily, get everyone into the group pic and take photos where everyone looks their best. For the first time on an A-Series phone, you'll...

Guest post by David Stokes, an advisor at Quant, a pioneer in Agentic AI,

AI Adoption Is Not a Technology Decision

For all the noise – and headline-grabbing numbers – surrounding Artificial Intelligence, one reality remains consistent across every serious boardroom conversation: some roles will not survive this transition. The World Economic Forum has quantified that reality – 92 million existing positions globally are projected to be eliminated by AI before 2030. In an Irish context, where research indicates that 63% of roles carry meaningful exposure to automation, this is not an abstract global statistic. It lands close to home.

For those entering the workforce, building careers, or planning the final chapter of a professional life, that figure demands honest engagement. The question is not whether disruption is coming. It is whether leaders and organisations are positioning themselves to be on the right side of it.

The Number That Changes Everything

The headline figure rarely travels with its companion statistic. That same WEF report projects the creation of 170 million new roles as a direct consequence of AI adoption. The net result is 78 million additional professional positions worldwide – growth, not contraction. In Ireland, AI deployment is forecast to contribute in excess of €250 billion to GDP by 2035. The trajectory of investment is not decelerating. Organisations that treat this moment as a threat to be managed will find themselves overtaken by those treating it as a capability to be built.

The more precise framing is this: the future of professional work is not human or AI. It is human and AI. For most organisations, that distinction will define competitive performance over the next decade. But whether Irish organisations capture that opportunity will depend far less on which tools they deploy than on how their leaders choose to lead through the transition.

The Human–AI Collaboration Imperative

Early empirical evidence is striking. Studies indicate that professionals augmenting their work with AI tools see productivity gains in the region of 40%, with a concurrent 18% improvement in accuracy. These are not incremental improvements – they represent a structural shift in what individuals and teams are capable of delivering. When AI absorbs the repetitive, rules-based work, human capacity is redirected toward strategic judgement, relationship complexity, and creative problem-solving: precisely the capabilities that drive differentiated outcomes.

The organisations that will define their sectors in the years ahead will be those that architect genuinely integrated human–AI operating models where agents and professionals function as a coherent unit, each amplifying the effectiveness of the other. This is not a futurist proposition. It is an operational decision that leaders are making now.

What Leadership Looks Like in This Environment

The first mark of any leader navigating an AI transition is credibility through practice. If you are mandating adoption, it helps to be a visible and genuine user of the technology yourself. There is no more powerful signal to a team than watching their leader engage with AI tools substantively – learning publicly, adjusting, improving. It shifts the cultural frame from imposition to shared endeavour.

The second priority is sustained investment in people. Individuals who feel that AI is being done to them, rather than enabled for them, will disengage. Structured upskilling programmes, designed not merely to train tool usage but to help people understand how their roles evolve and where their value compounds, become the foundation of a sustainable transition.

Third, identify and amplify your early adopters. Celebrate those achieving measurable results through AI integration. The effect operates on two levels simultaneously — it reassures those who are uncertain, and it creates a performance culture where the competitive instinct works in the organisation's favour. The compounding effect...

European Search Perspective, a Franco-German joint venture for sovereign search infrastructures, has sent open letters to heads of government across the European Union proposing to establish national search indices to strengthen Europe's digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on foreign technology providers.

The proposal comes 100 days after the Digital Sovereignty Summit in Berlin, where European leaders committed to reducing critical digital dependencies and building sovereign infrastructure where necessary and achievable.

Search engines play a central role in both democratic societies and digital economies. They determine how citizens access information, how businesses are discovered online and how artificial intelligence systems retrieve knowledge from the search.

Today, 99.5 percent of European search queries are based on answers by just two US companies (96 percent), and one Russian company (3.5 percent).

According to European Search Perspective, this concentration exposes European countries to systemic risks. If access to dominant search indexing infrastructure were restricted – whether due to sanctions regimes, regulatory conflict, export controls or commercial decisions – governments could lose critical analytical capabilities and economies could face complete collapse within days.

The majority of Europe's GDP (approximately 18 trillion) is directly dependent on the search index based economy.

European Search Perspective proposes that EU member states establish sovereign search infrastructure consisting of a national search index hosted under European jurisdiction, a national ranking algorithm, and infrastructure supporting both public search services and AI search grounding.

"Without a sovereign search index, Europe does not control the gateway to its own digital economy," says Wolfgang Oels, Director Europan Search Perspective.

The organisation argues that search infrastructure should be treated as strategic public infrastructure, comparable in importance to energy grids or telecommunications networks.

European Search Perspective is currently establishing a sovereign search index for France and Germany and has offered to extend the initiative to other EU member states.

See more stories here.

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Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news

If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

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The sharp decline in used electric vehicle prices appears to have stabilised, with the latest DoneDeal Cars Price Index showing the EV market entering a more settled phase after several years of volatility. After falling significantly during 2023 and 2024, used EV prices were broadly flat year-on-year by the end of 2025, suggesting the major price correction has now run its course. At the same time, electric cars have become cheaper than comparable diesel vehicles on Ireland's used market for the first time.

According to the analysis, across all cars in the dataset, a typical three-year-old electric car now has a median asking price of €28,825, compared with €35,893 for a diesel vehicle of the same age. When factors such as age, mileage and model are taken into account, used electric cars are now priced around 11% below comparable diesel vehicles, marking a dramatic shift from 2022 when EVs carried a clear price premium.

Petrol cars remain the cheapest option upfront, with a typical three-year-old model priced at around €22,900, but the gap between petrol and electric vehicles has narrowed significantly in recent years.

The data suggests the used EV market has now entered a more stable phase following a turbulent period triggered by falling new-car prices, reduced purchase grants and increased supply of electric vehicles entering the second-hand market.

Paddy Comyn, Head of Automotive Content and Communications at DoneDeal, said:

"We've come through a full cycle in the EV market. Prices surged during the supply shortages of the pandemic years, then corrected sharply as supply improved and manufacturers cut new-car prices. What we're seeing now is the market settling into a more normal pattern.

The big shift is that electric cars are no longer carrying a premium over diesel. In many cases, they're thousands cheaper, which is a significant turning point for buyers considering making the switch." The report also highlights ongoing pressures in the lower end of the used car market. Vehicles priced below €6,000 rose by 7.6% year-on-year, reflecting continued shortages of cheaper cars.

Separately, the report shows how Brexit has reshaped Ireland's used car supply chain. Imports from the UK have fallen sharply since 2019, while Japan now accounts for roughly half of all used car imports into Ireland, many of them European brands originally sold in the Japanese market before being re-exported.

Dr Tom Gillespie, economist and analyst of the DoneDeal Cars Price Index, said:

"The data suggests the market has found a more sustainable level. EV prices are stabilising, supply is improving, and price movements are becoming more predictable again after several volatile years."

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news

If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

A long and rainy winter has prompted many Irish families to book package holidays in the sun. Under new EU laws, these holidaymakers will be better protected going forward, according to lead negotiator on the new EU travel rules, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú.

The Transport and Tourism MEP has welcomed a raft of new protections for Irish holidaymakers that protect them when they book package holidays. She said the new rules will ensure greater transparency and fairness in the travel industry.

The revised Package Travel Directive is expected to be passed in a vote in the European Parliament on Thursday. The new EU travel rules give holidaymakers enhanced protection when things go wrong with their package holidays.

This includes situations where travel companies go bankrupt, something which impacted thousands of holidaymakers when Thomas Cook collapsed in 2019.

Cancelling your holiday

The new EU rules give passengers more rights when it comes to cancellations. Holidaymakers can cancel, penalty-free, when faced with unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances. This includes sudden natural disasters, conflict or public health emergencies. Tour operators are required to have insolvency protection so that in the unlikely event that they go broke, holidaymakers will be entitled to a refund within six months.

Those same insolvency protection schemes must be sufficient to guarantee not only consumer refunds but also the repatriation of holidaymakers if things go wrong on the package holiday. When a tour operator cancels someone's package holiday, they are now required to issue a refund within 14 days. The definition of what constitutes extraordinary circumstances for a cancellation will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

In practice, this means that if a holiday destination is hit by intense flooding or forest fires and official travel warnings are issued, consumers can cancel their package holiday without incurring costs and should receive a prompt refund. Ní Mhurchú pointed out that this is particularly important given the increasingly erratic weather patterns in parts of Europe, leading to flooding, fire and more extreme events.

Specific voucher protection

Amongst the measures in this revised Package Travel Directive is that holidaymakers who are offered vouchers by way of compensation by travel companies will now have the right to refuse a voucher and opt for a cash refund within 14 days. If a voucher is accepted but not used, its value must be reimbursed at expiry. Vouchers should be valid for up to 12 months, and transferable or extendable once. Importantly, vouchers must be backed by insolvency protection and usable across all services offered by the organiser, either in full or in instalments.

Making a complaint

Holiday makers can make complaints which must now be acknowledged within 7 days and replied to within 60 days.

The new EU laws require tour operators to provide clearer information on payment methods, passport/visa requirements, accessibility for people with reduced mobility, and termination fees if you cancel.

Where an "add-on" booking doesn't create a package, for example, when booking a hotel or a car rental through the Ryanair website after you have booked a flight, the onus is on the business, Ryanair in this example, to clearly explain in advance that the package travel protections do not apply. If the business does not make that distinction clearly enough in the booking process, and the extra service is bought in the same sales flow within the conditions set out in the directive, the arrangement may be treated as a package.

Ní Mhurchú said that MEPs strived to bolster protections for holidaymakers without adding any great additional bureaucracy on package tour operators. The new rules will apply to package tours or package holidays. Once voted on this Thursday, Member States have had 28 months to transpose it into national law, with the new rules applying 6 months after that deadline.

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Irish T...

One in three (34%) post-primary students now learn about money on social media, and one in seven (16%) don't feel comfortable asking for help with money-related questions or concerns, according to new research published by MABS (Money Advice & Budgeting Service). The findings will be presented today at a Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) event at Croke Park, to open Global Money Week.

The CCPC, as the national coordinator for Global Money Week, will bring together educators, students and representatives from the world of finance to recognise and celebrate the valuable work being done to build financial skills in young people.

MABS will present the findings of their Money Matters Survey, which found that while young people continue to demonstrate strong digital engagement and a growing sense of responsibility towards their personal finances, important gaps remain that require sustained attention from policymakers, educators, and researchers.

— Over a quarter (26%) of students don't know how to use an ATM

— TikTok has strengthened its dominance as the primary social media platform used for financial information/learning (72%), however,

— Parents and family members remain the primary source of financial learning (73%)

More than 150 students and their teachers from 20 schools across 13 counties will also attend the launch event to share their innovative financial literacy projects, which were sponsored by the CCPC's Our Money, Our Future programme.

In 2024, the CCPC launched the Our Money, Our Future programme, which invites post-primary schools and Youthreach Centres to apply for sponsorship up to €1,000 to support students in developing their own financial literacy initiatives and resources, based on topics and themes relevant to them. Over 10,000 students from 23 counties around the country participated in the programme in the 2025/26 school year.

Brian McHugh, Chair of the CCPC, said:

"Students in Ireland today are showing a real sense of financial curiosity; we can see this in the research conducted by MABS and through the high-calibre projects that students are creating through the Our Money, Our Future sponsorship programme. However, important gaps remain. It's up to policymakers and educators to try and close these gaps, which is why events like the Global Money Week launch – that bring together so many groups from the world of finance – are so important."

Karl Cronin, North Connacht and Ulster Regional Manager at MABS, said:

"The insights from this year's Money Matters research show that young people have strong financial curiosity, growing digital engagement, and a real sense of responsibility for their finances. When that curiosity is supported with early, practical financial education, it builds confidence that lasts into adulthood.

The results also highlight gaps that need continued focus, and MABS is committed to helping bridge those gaps by supporting initiatives, such as Global Money Week, that strengthen financial learning for young people across Ireland."

For more information on the Our Money, Our Future programme, please see here.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news

If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

From Startup to Global Cybersecurity Company, ThreatLocker

Cybersecurity company ThreatLocker has grown from a small startup into a global technology firm employing more than 700 people.

Founded by entrepreneurs Danny Jenkins and Sami Jenkins, the company built its platform around a strict deny-by-default security model commonly described as Zero Trust. Instead of trying to detect cyber threats after they appear, the system blocks unauthorised software from running in the first place.

Speaking at the company's sixth Zero Trust World conference in Orlando, ThreatLocker's leadership outlined how this approach has driven the company's rapid growth and international expansion.

Danny Jenkins says the philosophy behind the platform is intentionally simple.

"We just figure out what needs to run on a system and allow that to run perfectly," he said. "Everything else is irrelevant. It doesn't need to be there."

This principle, allowing only what is explicitly approved to run, sits at the core of the company's platform.

A Different Approach to Cybersecurity

Traditional cybersecurity tools attempt to detect malicious behaviour or known threats. ThreatLocker takes a different approach by blocking everything by default and allowing only approved applications to run.

The aim is to prevent ransomware and other attacks before they can execute.

Jenkins believes the cybersecurity industry sometimes overcomplicates the problem.

"Everyone wants to think there's some kind of magic formula," he said. "But it's simple. You create a really good product that solves a real problem and then you make sure people understand what it does."

Seamus Lennon, Vice President of Operations for EMEA at ThreatLocker, says the model reverses how many traditional security systems operate.

"For the past twenty years security tools have tried to stay one step ahead of attackers," he said. "With a deny-by-default model you allow only what is required and block everything else."

From IT Services to Cybersecurity Platform

The idea behind ThreatLocker emerged from the founders' earlier work running IT services and security businesses.

While managing IT systems for customers during the 2010s, Danny and Sami Jenkins repeatedly saw ransomware and malware bypass existing security tools.

Sami Jenkins said the product grew directly from that experience.

"We were running IT management services and kept seeing the same issue," she said. "We looked for products that could solve it but couldn't find anything that worked the way we needed. So the only solution was to build one."

Development began in 2015 and the first version of the platform was released in 2017.

In the early stages the company consisted of only a handful of people working on the product. Today it has grown into a global cybersecurity company employing more than 700 staff.

Sami remembers the financial risk involved in building the business.

"We basically went bankrupt building this company," she said. "Credit cards and everything went into it. So it's very rewarding now to see the impact it has."

Irish Roots in the Company's Story

Ireland also played an early role in the story of ThreatLocker.

Sami Jenkins, whose maiden name is Samantha Yorke, grew up in County Meath close to the border with County Cavan. She met Danny Jenkins while he was working in the nearby town of Kingscourt, and the two entrepreneurs went on to build several technology businesses together.

"We met in Kingscourt," she said, and their partnership developed from there.

Before founding ThreatLocker, the pair established and later sold two earlier technology businesses, including ventures in email security and IT management services. Their work supporting IT systems for customers ultimately led to the development of the ThreatLocker platform.

Why Organisations Adopt the Platform

ThreatLocker's customers include large enterprises, managed service providers and organisations in sectors such as finance, manufacturing and healthcare.

Many organisatio...

Guest post by Judson Althoff CEO of Microsoft's commercial business globally.

Frontier Transformation is a holistic reimagining of business, aligning AI with human ambition to achieve an organisation's highest aspirations. It is the next evolution of AI Transformation — not only do we need to deliver efficiency and productivity, but we need to democratise intelligence and do more for humanity. Companies do not want or need more AI experimentation. They need AI that delivers real business outcomes and growth.

In my daily conversations with customers and partners, they typically question what the most important components of an AI solution are. Is it the model? Is it silicon? At Microsoft, we believe the two most essential elements of Frontier Transformation are Intelligence + Trust. Organisations need to harness their own unique work intelligence as they build agents and solutions; and all AI artefacts across their technology stack must be observed, managed and secured to ensure they are delivering value responsibly.

Intelligence that shows up in real work

I often say that zero-shot artefact creation is nothing more than a parlour trick. Models can reason over data, produce draft documents, presentations and spreadsheets, but they do not understand work. Real differentiation comes from intelligence — deep work context, embedded in the tools people already use. AI should amplify your intelligence but do so in a manner that protects your differentiation and unique value.

Work IQ amplifies an individual's IQ by tapping into your organisation's IQ. It is the intelligence layer that enables Microsoft 365 Copilot and agents to know how you work, with whom you work, and the content upon which you collaborate. That is why Copilot is faster, more accurate and more trusted than solutions built on models and connectors alone.

This month, we are unleashing Work IQ with our next generation of agentic experiences in Wave 3 of Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Employees will have an enhanced chat experience in Copilot with the ability to create and augment artefacts, and the power to build their own agents within the canvas they work in every day.

Microsoft 365 Copilot is model diverse by design. Rather than betting on a single model, we built a system that makes every model useful at work. Customers get the choice, performance and flexibility in an open, heterogeneous environment. Copilot leverages leading models from OpenAI and Anthropic, operating openly across clouds and data services without locking customers in. Claude is now available in mainline chat in Copilot via the Frontier programme, alongside the latest generation of OpenAI models.

M365 Copilot Wave 3 is not just a singular release of new capabilities but rather a commitment to continuous innovation. We will bring frontier capabilities with enterprise promises for our customers in an open and model diverse manner. Another great example of this is Copilot Cowork, which is in research preview. Built in close collaboration with Anthropic, we are bringing the technology that powers Claude Cowork into Microsoft 365 Copilot to enable long-running, multi-step work that unfolds over time. Click here to learn about our Wave 3 news in more detail.

These announcements come as our customers across industries are already seeing the value of Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft recently delivered its strongest quarter yet with Copilot, with paid seats growing more than 160% year over year and daily active usage up ten times, as customers increasingly make Copilot a core part of everyday work.

Expansion is also accelerating as the number of customers deploying Copilot at significant scale — more than 35,000 seats — tripled year over year. Just last week, Mercedes Benz announced a global rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot, following recent investments from NASA, Fiserv, ING, the University of Kentucky, the University of Manchester, the U.S. Department of the Interior an...

Trash EEE-lk'- born from recycled kitchen appliances, iPads and cables – highlights Ireland's hidden electrical waste whilst reconnecting the nation with its ancient past

Designed by renowned Irish artist Ned Leddy and built from over 1,000 electrical items and components, the towering, four metre high, five metre long 'Trash EEElk, boasting 3.5 metre antlers, exposes hidden electrical waste in our homes. The installation urges everyone to recycle anything with a plug, cable or battery – and reminds the public to never bin electrical items.

Trash EEE-lk appears on St Patrick's Day

Trash EEE-lk is comprised of 80 circuit boards, 24 iPads, 28 plugs, 60 cables, 10 computers, 12 kettles and even more electrical components!

Invisible WEEE refers to small, everyday electrical items that often go unnoticed in our homes and are frequently thrown into household bins – despite the fire risks associated with improper disposal.

New research conducted on behalf of ERP Ireland shows chargers and cables (81%), smoke alarms (78%), hairdryers (76%), and even St Patrick's light-up hats and accessories (6%) are among the most owned 'Invisible WEEE' items, yet many small electrical products still end up in household bins. Chargers and cables (17%), vapes (13%) and earphones (9%) are the items most commonly misdisposed of.

The European Recycling Platform (ERP) has, today unveiled its show-stopping 'Trash EEE-lk' (EEE: Electrical and Electronic Equipment) installation ahead of this year's St Patrick's Festival in Dublin. The structure, made purely from e-waste, highlights the urgent need for Irish households to recycle (and not bin!) their invisible electrical items. The aim of the majestic mammal, which is set to dominate St. Patrick's Park from 14th – 16th March, is to encourage people to dispose of electrical items, most notably, invisible e-waste properly. 'Trash EEE-lk forms part of ERP's Sustainability Partnership with the St Patrick's Festival.

In addition to 'Trash EEE-lk', ERP has just released new findings in a survey conducted by Coyne Research. It reveals that 55% of adults have never heard of the term "Invisible WEEE", despite almost universal ownership of small electrical items that often go unnoticed in Irish homes.

The findings show that chargers and cables are the most hoarded, most binned, and most recycled Invisible WEEE items, simply because almost every household owns several of them. Everyday items such as vapes, earbuds, headphones, power banks, remote controls, power tools and small kitchen gadgets also frequently end up in household bins – a serious concern as battery-related fires at waste treatment plants are on the rise. Vapes (13%) and audio accessories (9%) are among the items most commonly misdisposed of, while smart home devices (33%), electric blankets (33%) and even St Patrick's light up hats and accessories (6%) add to ever-growing stockpiles of invisible e-waste accumulating in our homes.

ERP Ireland's 'Trash EEE-lk' brings an ancient giant back to life to symbolise Ireland's growing invisible electrical waste problem, encouraging the public to stop in their tracks and recycle responsibly, whilst highlighting the importance of correct disposal.

Designed by renowned Irish artist Ned Leddy, this striking large-scale installation is created from over 1,000 electrical items and components. Towering over the park, it measures five metres long, four metres high and boasts 3.5 metre antlers. As a form of "artivism", it does more than captivate – it aims to influence recycling culture and spark real change. Inspired by the prehistoric Irish Elk, the largest species of deer ever known, 'Trash EEE-lk' connects Ireland's ancient past with a modern reminder to recycle the unseen.

'Trash EEE-lk' forms a wider part of this year's St Patrick's Festival theme, Roots, which explores identity, belonging and the shared stories that connect generations. The majestic Irish Elk – which roamed Ireland and Europe before, during and a...

Activ8 Solar Energies has announced the commissioning of a major rooftop solar installation at the Tayto Snacks production facility in Ashbourne, Co. Meath, representing an investment of over €1.17 million. The project marks Tayto's largest renewables investment to date and a significant step towards onsite renewable energy generation.

The system now supplies approximately 10% of Tayto's annual power demand and is expected to generate around 667 MWh annually. This will reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 146.17 tonnes of CO? per year.

The project comes as Irish manufacturers face rising electricity costs, grid constraints and tightening climate targets, accelerating a shift towards onsite generation as businesses seek greater control over energy supply.

"This project demonstrates what's possible when iconic Irish brands take decisive action on sustainability," said Ciaran Marron, CEO of Activ8 Energies. "On-site generation is increasingly becoming core infrastructure for manufacturers. We're proud to support Tayto Snacks in building long-term energy resilience while reducing carbon exposure."

John O'Connor, Managing Director at Tayto Snacks commented: "This investment marks a major step forward in strengthening our energy resilience while reducing our carbon footprint. Generating over 667 MWh of clean electricity onsite each year, this installation directly supports Ireland's climate ambitions and reinforces our long-term commitment to sustainable manufacturing".

The rooftop system comprises 1,734 solar panels and uses Activ8's ATLAS Duo N-Type bifacial solar panels, designed to maximise efficiency and reliability in Irish weather conditions

Representing Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), Declan Meally, Director of Business, added: "This project showcases Irish businesses leading the way in renewable energy. Generating 10% of the site's energy from rooftop solar here at Tayto Snacks is a significant achievement, and SEAI is proud to support it. Activ8, working in partnership with SSE, has delivered a strong model that more businesses should follow."

The initiative was supported by grant funding from SEAI under the Non-Domestic Microgeneration Grant (NDMG) scheme. Planning and development for the project began in December 2024, with onsite works commencing in March 2025. The system is now fully commissioned and operational.

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