Ireland faces serious reputational risk over “persistent deficits” in energy and water, the State competitiveness watchdog has said in an annual assessment. Eoin Burke-Kennedy writes that the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council has warned of “ramifications for SMEs and the investment decisions of internationally mobile foreign-owned firms” if the State cannot get to grip with the challenge of upgrading infrastructure.
More warnings, this time on the planned mandatory workplace pensions. Plans to force the pensions regulator to adopt a lighter touch with auto-enrolment than it does with other private pension groups is causing concern in the Department of Finance, according to briefing papers prepared for the new Minister, Jack Chambers. Joe Brennan has the details.
Bord na Móna saw revenue drop 30 per cent last year and renewable energy sales fall by €45 million for the commercial semi-State but asset sales bolstered profit, which dipped only marginally to €113 million before tax. Barry O’Halloran reports.
Meanwhile Axa, Ireland’s largest general insurer, has secured approval from the Irish central bank to start underwriting health insurance for the Laya Healthcare business it acquired last year for €650 million, a move that Joe Brennan writes will see its Irish premium income double.
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It was a bad day for Elon Musk who saw $100bn wiped off the value of his Tesla group following poorly-received results that showed falling sales and profit margins. But that didn’t deter him from taking up Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu on his invitation to hear him address the US Congress.
Back home, Primary Health Properties (PHP), which owns 21 primary care centres across the Republic, says it remains committed to expanding here despite rising business costs that stalled plans for new centres in the past year, as it reported interim results in line with expectations.
An application from the new owners of the Clarence Hotel for retention of The Giddy Dolphin pub they have opened in the adjoining Dollard House was rejected by Dublin city planners who said approving the superpub would set an undesirable precedent for similar development.
All change for discounter Lidl whose Irish boss is moving on to take control of its French business. Robert Ryan, chief customer officer at the Irish business, will take over from JP Scally in October, writes Fiona Keeley.
In technology, we try to unravel the broader lessons from last week’s global outage triggered by a glitchy software patch from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike. The outage, which will cost insurers billions, is more than a warning light, experts suggest. The more networked the world gets, the greater the danger. And someday a boring piece of technology – overloaded, neglected or poorly installed – will cause a genuine disaster
And finally, in Innovation, Neil Briscoe writes that if we are to successfully battle climate change, we need to do two things pretty quickly. We need to convert our home heating from gas and oil to electricity. And we need to do the same with our cars. To date, these challenges have been targeted separately. Now an Irish company called Evhacs has started to work on both, coming up with technologies that should simplify the dual process of electrifying our houses and our cars.
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