300,000 on strike and McDonald’s putting Ireland's chicken expertise to the test.

14 October 2026

Good morning. Public-sector workers are heading for the picket lines, while Irish businesses are chasing bigger ambitions, from international acquisitions to a recovering property market. Dublin also welcomes some of AI's biggest names today, and there's plenty happening in the markets. Let's get into it.

1. Public Sector Strike Goes Ahead As Pay Talks Collapse. More than 300,000 public-sector workers are set to take part in a 24-hour strike today after unions rejected Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers’ invitation to negotiations. The Government has allocated €1.2bn for a new pay agreement, but unions say outstanding commitments from the previous deal must be addressed and want assurances on a meaningful multi-year agreement. The Government has criticised the refusal to enter talks, while Ibec chief Danny McCoy argues the allocation represents roughly 3.2% annually in pay and pensions, broadly matching private-sector expectations. Schools, hospitals and other public services face significant disruption.

2. Ireland Wants Startups To Become Buyers, Not Targets. Enterprise Ireland's new Startup Ireland initiative aims to support 1,000 startups by 2030, with funding, accelerators and international connections to help Irish businesses scale. Meanwhile, Irish-founded LearnUpon has secured a €44.7m debt facility to finance product development, international expansion and acquisitions. The learning software company already serves more than 1,500 businesses. So here we have Government ambition and an established company with an expansion plan; both are pointing towards building Irish businesses capable of buying abroad rather than being bought.

3. Irish Property Investment Heads Towards €3bn. Irish commercial property investment exceeded €2bn in the first nine months of 2026, its strongest performance for the period since 2022, with Savills forecasting approximately €3bn by year-end. Larger transactions are returning, including the €180m acquisition of Quayside Quarter and BNY Mellon's €160m purchase of The Shipping Office. Meanwhile, European data-centre property values rose 1.2% in the third quarter while the wider commercial property market declined by roughly 1%. Not every development is progressing smoothly, however: John Malone's Ballylinch Stud is among those opposing plans to expand Kilkenny's Mount Juliet estate.

4. Dublin Hosts AI Heavyweights As Local Startup Raises €5.8m. Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, OpenAI finance chief Sarah Friar and Microsoft president Brad Smith are among the international technology leaders gathering in Dublin today for the International AI Summit. Europe's AI competitiveness and commercial adoption are on the agenda. Meanwhile, Dublin startup Dubsof has raised €5.8m to develop software that integrates AI into everyday business operations. The company already employs 25 people, providing a homegrown example of the industry Ireland is hoping to develop.

5. Greencore Raises Profit Forecast After £1bn Quarter. Irish food manufacturer Greencore has raised its annual operating profit forecast to £248m after fourth-quarter revenue climbed 4.5% to £1.03bn (€1.22bn). The company, which acquired rival Bakkavor for €1.4bn in January, says the integration is delivering savings and new business, including £30m in annualised revenue wins. Shares rose 2.6% yesterday, while Goodbody expects to lift its 2027 earnings estimates by 2–3%. After a rocky start for investors, the takeover is beginning to show its value.

The IMF has warned that advanced economies are heading for their largest budget deficits since the pandemic, with borrowing forecast at 5.2% of GDP this year. BP, meanwhile, has cut its debt by around $8bn as elevated oil prices boost its finances. Gold climbed towards $4,200 an ounce as investors weighed Middle East tensions and upcoming US inflation figures. Around 400 scientists are calling for an international body to oversee advanced AI systems, including common safety standards and incident reporting. And in Chile, BHP is scrambling to avert a strike at the world's largest copper mine, with workers seeking a bigger slice of soaring profits.

Finance & Markets

Markets are shaking where Irish investors have been leaning hardest, even as bond yields offer some relief.

Chip stocks extended their slide on Tuesday, with a gauge of semiconductor makers about 18 per cent below its June record in afternoon trading after Broadcom’s Hock Tan likened some AI investors to gamblers in a casino. ASML, Europe’s largest company, fell 4.2 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 6 per cent. Yet the S&P 500 edged up 0.1 per cent in afternoon trading and Microsoft closed just short of a record high, so the pain is concentrated.

The Irish exposure is personal rather than corporate. Revolut says its average Irish investment customer held 38 per cent in US stocks in September, up from 32 per cent in January, while money market funds, which behave much like cash, fell from 53 to 36 per cent. Nvidia and Micron were the most-bought US stocks. That describes Revolut’s customers, not all Irish savers, but it shows how quickly risk has been added.

Bonds were calmer, with the US 10-year yield at 5.22 per cent and Ireland’s at 3.59 per cent, against 3.7 per cent on 30 September.

On PTSB, the Takeover Panel rejected Axis Capital’s challenge to the bank’s sale to Bawag, finding no basis for a breach of takeover rules. Axis has still not shown how it would finance a possible €3.20-a-share offer, while Bawag’s agreed €2.97 deal moves towards a High Court hearing on 27 October.

Watch Thursday’s NTMA auction of €1.25bn of bonds to see how demand and pricing hold up after the recent yield highs.

In Thursday’s Tá, the Sector Spotlight will be Health & Pharma.

Wednesday - By The Numbers

21% – Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft’s combined share of the S&P 500, the highest concentration among three companies in decades. In the mid-1980s, the three largest constituents accounted for just 13.4%.

€62.5m – Revenue at Irish engineering consultancy Ethos in 2025, up 59%. Pretax profit doubled to €12.1m as the data-centre specialist expanded its workforce and operations.

€104m – Maximum value of capacity contracts secured by Irish data-centre developer Echelon to supply 60MW of electricity to the national grid from its planned Arklow facility, with generation expected from 2028.

38% – Share of Irish Revolut investors' portfolios allocated to US stocks in September, up from 32% in January. Money-market fund allocations fell from 53% to 36% over the same period.

$50bn – OpenAI's reported annualised revenue run rate at the end of September, approximately $20bn below an earlier widely reported figure that used a different calculation. Annualised revenue is not the same as full-year earnings.

Dublin has been chosen as McDonald’s European testing ground for a new hand-breaded chicken menu. Apparently, we’re the ideal people to decide whether the world needs another way to eat fried chicken. Exciting. Meanwhile, Netflix has secured exclusive rights to all 104 matches of the 2030 World Cup in Spain and Andorra, giving football fans another four years to explain why they need yet another subscription. Back home, plans for ten padel courts in Swords face a planning appeal over traffic and parking concerns, with one objector arguing that players travelling from as far as Drogheda, Sutton and Castleknock are hardly going to cycle there. Fair point, although the idea of someone commuting from Drogheda for a game of padel is almost as ambitious as Phil Hogan’s latest career move. The former European Commissioner is running to lead the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, insisting he has learned lessons from Golfgate. Hopefully we don’t get another global pandemic to test those words.

The Read – RTÉ Brainstorm – Is there an AI evangelist in your office? Here’s what to do

Professor Kevin Murphy of the University of Limerick looks at the AI evangelist in your workplace and the pressure that can push staff into performative use, pretending to use AI to satisfy a mandate. He notes that investment has so far not delivered notably higher productivity, innovation or profits in most organisations, yet evangelists point to gloomy predictions about computers and the internet. His advice for a boss who has caught the bug is practical: ask for help choosing the model and controlling costs. Such questions may reveal that AI is costlier and less simple than assumed. Link: Is there an AI evangelist in your office? Here’s what to do

Share Your Morning Tá with someone who'd find it useful…

See you tomorrow. ☘️ Your Morning Tá – Ireland's daily brief for professionals.