Irish Times Inside Business

This week it's the business of sport. Together with Mick O'Keeffe of Teneo PSG, Ciaran interviews GAA Director General Tom Ryan. They talk about funding the sport, Dublin's dominance and what the future holds for inter-county players.

How has the extraordinary result of the 2020 election gone down among investors, the financial sector and businesses? To talk about the election and its aftermath from an economic perspective, Ciaran is joined by Cliff Taylor and by Brian Hayes, head of the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland and a former Fine Gael TD.

Following a ruling this week from the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, AIB have set aside a further €300 million to compensate victims of the tracker-mortgage scandal. In studio to discuss what this means for the thousands of customers affected is consumer campaigner Brendan Burgess from Askaboutmoney.com and Irish Times journalist Joe Brennan.

Plus Peter Hamilton is here for the business roundup with details on a major new Brown Thomas store and some controversial Ryanair ads.

In this episode, host Laura Slattery is joined by Irish Times contributor Chris Johns, who has taken a detailed look through the manifestos of Fine Gael & Fianna Fáil. What are the parties promising in terms of public finances and how will it be implemented? Also, with Brexit set for Friday evening & the value of Sterling falling, Irish Times journalist Mark Paul discusses the likely impact it will have on Irish tourism.

The growing, ageing population has created a pensions time bomb for this Government and the gap between the common retirement age of 65 and eligibility for the state pension has emerged as a major election issue. Our own Dominic Coyle explains the problem, while Willie O'Dea, Fianna Fáil's spokesperson on pensions, claims his party will make a better fist of this policy area if voted in next month.

Joe Brennan reports from Davos where an unusually small Irish contingent is rubbing shoulders with US President Donald Trump, climate activist Greta Thunberg and the usual coterie of premiers, ministers and CEOs. One Irish person who did make it is 18-year-old  Fionn Ferreira, winner of the 2019 Google Science Fair, to talk about his plan to remove microplastics from the ocean.

In this episode, Ciaran Hancock is joined by Economist Jim Power and Irish Times Journalist Cliff Taylor. Together they take a look at how the Irish General Election campaign will play out over the next few weeks. Will the electorate give Fine Gael any credit for the recent economic growth and which party is best equipped to tackle the housing and health crisis?

Plus, New Zealand based entrepreneur Andrew Barnes discusses his new book 'The Four Day Week', which puts forward the idea that shorter working hours results in more productivity. It sounds great in theory, but would it work?

Cork-born businessman Norman Crowley believes the profit motive is the best hope we have for reducing our carbon emissions enough to stave off the worst effects of climate change in the decades ahead. He talks to Ciaran about the various strands of his business Crowley Carbon (electrifying vintage cars, creating meatless meat, and making companies more energy efficient), his assessment of Green politics and more.

For our final show of 2019 we've assembled a panel of experts to take stock of the the year and to make some predictions about the year ahead in business, the economy and beyond. Stephen Brewer is managing director with telecoms firm Magnet Networks, Michael O'Keeffe is CEO of Teneo PSG Ireland and Lucinda Creighton is CEO of Vulcan Consulting and a former junior minister for European Affairs.

Businessman Kieran Lucid has a dream: an all-Ireland football league, uniting clubs from Northern Ireland and the Republic. But with soccer in the south in dire straits and cultural resistance in the North, he faces an uphill battle. He talks to Ciaran Hancock about his ambitious plan.

But first Peter Hamilton has a roundup of the latest business news.

Today we are taking you on an exclusive tour of one of the biggest construction projects in Dublin city today: the redevelopment of the former Central Bank building on Dame Street, or "Central Plaza" as it will be called.

It is one of Dublin's standout buildings, a bulky modernist structure towering over the 18th century architecture of College Green. For decades the space outside has been a rendezvous point for Dubliners, a hangout spot for teenagers and a stage for numerous demonstrations. Inside, momentous events in Ireland's recent economic history have played out.

Now it is the subject of a €100 million redevelopment by US investment company Hines. Brian Moran, Hines's leading executive in Ireland, shows Ciarán around the site, including its rooftop restaurant and public foyer, while explaining the history and architecture of the building, the challenges of redevelopment and its attraction to signed-on lead tenants WeWork.