The Business

The UK gas supply crisis was one of the last things Liz Truss needed this week. She was rounded on from all sides for the banking crisis, controversial tax cuts, cost of living and the list goes on. But probably unfairly she was also taken apart on social media for her delivery at the Conservative Party conference where people were scathing about her body language. But can we judge someone on their body language and their facial expressions? We asked Poker player Andy Black to give it some thought.

Well, poker was just one of the many industries highlighted this week where deception was involved. Cheating has rocked the worlds of chess, Irish dancing… and even fishing! 2fm’s Aifric O'Connell is with us in studio to take a look back at some of the standout cheating stories throughout history.

What are the workplace sounds that get people going – maybe even help them get up in the morning? Siofra Mulqueen has been finding out about some of the workplace sounds that people love and hate. Musician May Kay, Arigna Mining Experience and Dublin Zoo joins us to discuss.

Just over three years ago, one of Ireland’s legendary business characters, Ray Coyle was chatting with us in this studio. Sadly, Ray passed away earlier this year, at the age of 70, and his son Charles Coyle is now continuing his legacy after taking over the reins at Tayto Park, or soon to be Emerald Park.

The tragedy in An Craoslach in Co. Donegal is dominating the headlines today Seven people have been killed following an explosion at an Applegreen garage yesterday afternoon. To bring us the latest, we’re joined by John McAteer from the Tirconaill Tribune and Eamonn McFadden.

The recent discussion of energy prices is one seen across various newspapers. A number of energy price hikes come into effect from today. We’re joined by Darragh Cassidy, Head of Communications with Bonkers.ie and Personal Finance Editor with the Irish Independent Charlie Weston to discuss.

Many businesses have in the last few years been thinking closer to home for manufacturers and suppliers. And our next guest runs one such business. Jennifer Slattery runs a textile company that’s designed and manufactured here, but exports all over the world. Jennifer Slattery textiles specialises mainly in table linen, but they’re branching into clothing too. She tells us her story.

As energy prices continue to rise and the war in Ukraine continues, there was a lot of concern this week about the damage caused to two natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea - with many citing sabotage as the cause. So what are the vulnerable infrastructures and are there any that we in Ireland should be paying particular attention to? We’re joined by security and defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke.

With the cost of living crisis bearing down on many countries, deepening political and economic cracks are appearing. Our next guest monitors political risk in various countries and he says the UK and US are a whole new level of political risk and both are beginning to resemble emerging markets rather than developed countries. Mark Rosenberg is the founder and co-head of the Research firm GeoQuant and he joins me now.

There was much excitement at NASA this week as they successfully managed to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid. It was humanity’s first attempt at moving another celestial body - to test our capacity to defend Earth from a doomsday scenario of a large asteroid hurtling towards us. But from the extraordinary to the very ordinary, Siofra Mulqueen has been looking at the space innovations that we’ve managed to encompass into our everyday lives. We’re joined by Professor of Aerospace Engineering Sinéad O’Sullivan, Space Reporter Dr Niamh Shaw and Leo Enright to discuss.