Breakfast Business with Joe Lynam

2024 has probably been the worst year for Boeing‘s reputation since the company was founded almost 80 years ago. A door blew out mid-air in January and only this week it emerged that safety inspectors at the planemaker didn’t carry out their work on the new 787 Dreamliner aircraft. On top of that the BBC has spoken to whistleblowers outlining corners being cut at companies which supplied Boeing. And the business correspondent who has been across this story for months is the BBC’s Theo Leggett. Theo spoke to Joe this morning on the show.

Anyone who has ever painted anything or played a musical instrument or even dreamed of being a designer, will probably have noticed Apple’s much vaunted new advert for its new very expensive iPad. Dozens of items in the creative process are physically crushed and destroyed revealing the new thinnest ever iPad in its wake. The backlash was quick and stinging from many quarters from people who demanded that Apple withdraw the advert. Someone who has seen plenty of adverts which metaphorically crush the opposition is our Technology Correspondent Jess Kelly who joined Joe this morning.

Aidan Donnelly from Davys joined Joe this morning to run through the main business stories this morning.

The amount of money laundered around the world is an estimated $3.6 trillion or nearly 4% of global GDP. Only 1% of that ever gets recovered. It’s hard to fathom that so much money can be ‘cleansed’ from illicit origins and yet so little ends up in the hands of taxpayers. So what can we do to curb money laundering that’s not already being done. Ireland lost out to Frankfurt in March to be the home of the EU Anti Money Laundering Agency but we do have plenty of experts in this field. Speaking to Joe this morning was David Lewis is the Managing Director and Global Head of Anti-Money Laundering with Kroll & Co.

Vertigo is usually associated with a fear of heights but it’s a lot more than that and can affect 1 in 20 in older people. Treating it is complicated but an Irish startup is working on a device to help with that. It’s called Vertigenius and today joining Joe was Mark Barry is the Chief Executive who has just secured €2.1m to expand R&D.

A look at today's business stories and websites with Joe Lynam.

Ireland’s largest chain of pharmacies, Lloyds with 80 shops, has just merged with McCabe's to make it a formidable group with 112 stores. The entire group is now owned by a company called PHX which is a wholesale as well as retail business throughout Europe. Paul Reilly from PHX Ireland which now includes McCabe's pharmacies joined Joe this morning in studio.

A look at today's business stories and websites with Joe Lynam.

Public sector employees earn a gross salary of up to 6.6% less than their private sector equivalents. But if you include smaller companies, that pay disadvantage all but disappears. Then of course there are the huge perks enjoyed by civil servants such as very generous pensions and the fact that they are virtually unfireable. So do public sector workers earn more or less than those working for private companies on the whole. Dr Emma Howard from TU Dublin discussed this further with Joe.

As of the end of last month, the UK customs authorities have been inspecting all foods that enter the country from the EU. But now there’s a €145 inspection charge per consignment even though it’s not exactly clear what constitutes a consignment. The good news for Irish food exporters is that these rules do not YET apply to us as members of the Common Travel Area. But they will and it could be messy. To discuss further Joe spoke to Carol Lynch is a partner in charge of customs & Trade at with the consultants BDO.

There were just over 9,000 burglaries in Ireland last year. That was roughly half the number before lockdowns in 2019. So does that mean we need less alarms? One business which certainly doesn't think so is Action24 which is competing in an ever-congested space of monitoring homes using technology and a call out service. Unlike Phonewatch which is owned by a Norwegian company, Action24 says it’s the only full Irish service. Speaking to Joe this morning was Aaron Mooney, is the chief executive of Action24.

Joe Lynam takes a run through of Monday's business news and websites.

The good news is that the most important part of the Irish economy the services sector is still growing. But it's the slowest pace of growth so far this year. Financial services were the best performing sub sectors and technology and media the weakest and yet they all had some sort of growth. To discuss this and the wider economy was David McNamara is the Chief Economist with AIB.

Ireland has set itself a target of 70% of its energy mix coming from renewable energy sources. Currently wind, wave and solar energy accounts for a modest 37%.The next stages in offshore wind energy are in the Irish planning swamp where there is a shortage of skilled experts to adjudicate but plenty of NIMBYs prepared to hold it up. Speaking to Joe this morning was TJ Hunter, Senior Director for Development and Operations at Ørsted UK & Ireland which is one of the biggest developer of offshore wind farms in the world.

A look at today's business stories and websites with Joe Lynam and Austin Hughes.

The International Energy Agency said that 17% of Ireland's total energy usage was accounted for by data centres in 2022. That number may well be higher now. But data centres could well be considered as important to this economy as Ardnacrusha was to electrify Ireland a decade ago or even water treatment facilities are today. There’s no doubt that data centres are the backbone of the internet. But do we appreciate that? Joe discussed this with Garry Connolly, Founder of Host in Ireland.

The Employment Permits Bill was set to change what kind of workers outside the EU and UK could get permission to live and work here. It covers seasonal employment and whether spouses could also come live here. But the Minister steering the Bill through the Oireachtas Neale Richmond has moved to the Department of Finance and immigration has also suddenly become a very hot political and geopolitical issue for Ireland. To discuss further Joe was joined on the show by Claire Cumiskey, Director of Fragomen which is a consultancy on immigration issues.

A look at today's business stories and websites with Newstalk's Business Editor Joe Lynam.

Bord na Móna used to be the cause of some of the biggest carbon pollutants in Ireland by burning Peat and briquettes from Boglands. It has done a full U-turn on its business and now aims to be very green. One of the ways that it is doing this is by establishing wind farms on its lands mostly in the Midlands and as part of that it has opened the first Eco-energy park, in Co Offaly. Its first big customer is none other than the biggest cloud computing business in the world Amazon web services.We hear all about their plans with John Reilly the head of renewable energy at Bord na Mona.

Advertising is the backbone of the world of radio, television and online. Without it, most of the stuff that we enjoy for free wouldn’t be possible without some sort of subscription. But does advertising work in the way hoped for by companies? There’s a new major survey underway called the Good Life 2030 Ireland. The survey seems to suggest that 77% of people expect advertising to improve lifestyles but 45% think that we’d all be better off without it. To take a look at the findings with Joe was Laura Costello from Think House who is carrying out the survey.