Ireland is at near full employment—but beneath that headline success lies a stark contradiction. Around one in five people in Ireland lives with a disability, yet fewer than half of those of working age are in employment, creating one of the widest disability employment gaps in the European Union.

It’s a gap that isn’t about talent or ambition—but about how our systems, workplaces, and policies have been designed.

A new report from the Open Doors Initiative, From Awareness to Action, argues that closing this gap isn’t just a social issue—it’s an economic and leadership imperative. It calls for a shift away from traditional corporate social responsibility toward what it terms Corporate Social Justice: embedding inclusion into the very core of how organisations hire, manage, and lead.

And the prize is significant—not just for individuals facing an additional €8,000–€12,000 a year in the cost of disability—but for businesses too, with research showing more inclusive organisations are more productive and more profitable.

To unpack all of this, I’m joined today by Jeanne McDonagh, CEO of the Open Doors Initiative—an organisation working at the intersection of business, government and lived experience to build a more inclusive workforce.

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Today I’m joined by someone who sits right at the centre of the future of work technology and business transformation.

Alvina Antar is the Chief Digital Officer at F5 – and notably, the first to hold that role in the company’s history. At a time when organisations everywhere are trying to move from digital ambition to real transformation, Alvina is helping redefine what that journey actually looks like inside a deeply technical, global business.

But this isn’t just about systems or platforms. It’s about building what she calls the ‘new F5’ — and just as importantly, the new kind of employee and culture needed to power it. From reimagining how humans and AI work together, to shaping high-performance, human-first organisations, Alvina brings a perspective that’s both deeply strategic and refreshingly grounded in people.

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Everyone’s talking about AI replacing jobs. Very few are asking what happens next, especially for the people just starting their careers. Dee Lyons is one of those few. She’s the Founder and CEO of Acuru, an AI-powered capability platform working with some of the largest professional services firms in Ireland and the UK. And she’s got a front-row seat to a structural shift that’s only just beginning. Because if AI is quietly removing the repetitive, ground-level work that used to train junior professionals… how do they build judgement? How do they learn to think? Today, we’re digging into what it actually means to develop professional capability in an AI-native world – and why the firms that get this right early will have a serious edge.

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Ireland has built a reputation as a global hub for financial services – but building world‑class fintech and insurtech companies from a small island still comes with very real challenges.

From attracting talent and scaling internationally, to regulation, capital, and competition – success doesn’t happen by accident.

Today, I’m joined by Gary Leyden, the CEO of Instech, who is focused on positioning Ireland as a global hub for insurance innovation

We spoke about what Ireland gets right, where it still needs to raise its game, and what it really takes to build globally ambitious fintech companies from here.

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We are joined by Fergal Doyle, Chief Commercial Officer of The Arboretum, one of Ireland’s most distinctive retail and hospitality brands.

Arboretum has built a business that goes far beyond the traditional garden centre — blending retail, food, sustainability and experience in a way that continues to resonate strongly with Irish consumers.

In this conversation, we’re going to explore how the business has grown, what Fergal is seeing first-hand when it comes to changing Irish consumer behaviours, and how experience-led retail can thrive even in challenging economic times.

We’ll also talk about Fergal’s appointment as President of the International Garden Centre Association, and what that role says about the opportunities and challenges facing the wider retail sector in Ireland.

With The Retail Excellence Conference just around the corner, this is a timely conversation about leadership, resilience, and where Irish retail is heading next.

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In just weeks, the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive comes into force — and for most Irish SMEs, it’s landing faster than they’re ready for.

Only a tiny fraction of businesses believe they’re prepared. Many can’t evidence how pay decisions were made. And once the law arrives, there’s no going back to fix the past.

Today, we’re shining a spotlight on what this really means for Ireland’s 400,000 small and medium‑sized businesses — and, more importantly, what they need to do next.

I’m joined by Fredericka Sheppard, Co‑Founder and Managing Director of HR consultancy Voltedge, to talk about what good looks like in practice — and by Crystel Robbins Rynne, CEO of HRLocker, who has real‑time insight into what’s actually happening inside Irish SMEs right now.

We’ll cover pay structures, performance management, and recruitment — and give you practical insights on what to do next.

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New research from the ESRI and Ireland's Department of Finance warns that AI could displace close to 200,000 Irish jobs – nearly 7% of the workforce – in the short to medium term. But according to Ian Dodson, the answer isn't panic; it's upskilling. The co-founder of the Digital Marketing Institute, which trained over 75,000 professionals before being acquired by BPP Education Group, Dodson is now applying that same playbook to AI with AICertified – a university-accredited, industry-validated standard for professional AI competence. Backed by €1m from Oyster Capital and Enterprise Ireland, he joins us to explain why those who invest in AI literacy today will be the ones who thrive tomorrow.

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Neil Sands – From Whiskey to Water: Building Brands That Last Neil Sands has done it all – founded a whiskey brand now sold in 30+ countries, spent a decade advising Silicon Valley giants as well as organisations like Deloitte, Forbes, Booking.com and the NHS, and most recently launched Clír Water, a multi-million euro water production venture creating jobs in Co. Armagh. In this episode, Neil shares the real story behind building and scaling a consumer brand internationally, what it's like moving between the worlds of startups, consulting and manufacturing, and the hard-won lessons every entrepreneur needs to hear before launching their first venture. If you're building something, this one's for you.

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We talk to the founders of Otonomee Aidan and Hilary O’Shea about how the Cork-born business is scaling to more than 500 people just four years after starting up. The business, which is targeting global expansion, was founded on the premise that the traditional call centre model was broken and that a remote-first digital model was the future.

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We chat with Charis Aherne from Irish business Climeaction, a business leading the charge with an agtech platform using video‑guided audits, AI and cloud analytics to make farm‑level carbon data scalable and verifiable. She joins us to discuss agtech innovation, sustainability as a competitive advantage, and how Irish climate tech is helping build global food infrastructure.

Visit www.thinkbusiness.ie for more news and supports for start-ups and SMEs in Ireland. If you want to start and grow a business, ThinkBusiness.