🏗️ Building costs, big Irish ideas & a strange Friday night plan

Good morning, and happy Friday! Ireland is creating jobs, backing businesses and inventing some pretty impressive things, even if building anything is still proving painfully expensive. We've got a packed edition to round off the week, and Worth Your Time has a rather unusual proposal (and you can listen rather than read): invite your friends over for a night of sorting bills and life admin. Apparently, that's a social occasion now. Let's get into it.

1. Construction Costs Overtake Planning As Biggest Development Obstacle. A new EY survey finds 44% of Irish property borrowers, developers and investors identify construction viability and delivery costs as their biggest obstacle, ahead of 33% citing planning delays and uncertainty. EY says financing cannot bridge the gap between building costs and achievable values. Planning remains a constraint, but making projects financially viable is proving just as difficult. More on what's happening across property and energy in today's Sector Spotlight.

2. Irish Businesses Expand, Invest And Prepare For Growth. Longford construction firm Framespace plans to create 100 jobs through Móro, a new garden-home brand launched with rent-to-own platform Homely. Meanwhile, DAA is preparing for a €5.6bn airport investment programme while searching for a permanent CEO eight months after Kenny Jacobs departed. Dublin Airport handled almost 29m passengers in the first nine months, up 4%, while DAA's international division continues expanding operations across overseas airports. Growth is creating opportunities, but also some substantial management decisions.

3. Irish Businesses Are Doing Some Pretty Cool Things. Dublin gym operator Perpetua, known for its class-based, pay-as-you-go model, is investing approximately €1m in a new 7,000 sq ft facility at Wilton Park. The new location will focus on memberships, introducing Lagree training and its new Method strength-and-conditioning concept, with further Dublin expansion planned. Meanwhile, three Irish-founded femtech businesses have made Time's Best Inventions of 2026 list: Peri for its perimenopause-tracking wearable, MyCelsius for its cooling bracelet and Coroflo for its breastfeeding monitor. From new fitness experiences in Dublin to health technologies gaining international recognition, there's plenty of Irish innovation worth celebrating.

4. Ireland Is Helping International Businesses Grow. Anthropic's European chief Guillaume Princen says Irish talent is central to its expansion, with the AI company seeking Dublin premises capable of accommodating up to 1,000 staff and advocating stronger AI safety standards. Separately, Ladbrokes owner Entain reported UK and Irish net gaming revenue up 8% in Q3, against 2% group growth, although shares fell 3.6% in early trading. Its stronger performance here contrasts with difficulties in Brazil and higher UK gambling taxes.

5. Any Other Business: Airport Ruling, State Borrowing, Ardagh And Universities. The European Court of Justice ruled that legally applicable passenger limits must be considered when allocating airport slots, adding another development to Dublin Airport's disputed 32m cap. The NTMA completed a €1.25bn bond auction at a 3.5045% yield, bringing 2026 benchmark issuance to €12.3bn. A Luxembourg court lifted an order blocking preparations for Ardagh's potential metal-packaging sale, while Irish universities warned of an annual funding gap of approximately €250m.

Irish diesel prices have reached an average of €2.14 a litre, up 24% since February, with a new US-Russia fuel deal unlikely to offer much immediate relief given the limited volumes involved – it is expected to provide less than a day of supply for the US. In Washington, the FTC has subpoenaed OpenAI and Anthropic for records relating to AI safety incidents as part of a consumer-protection investigation, while Germany is preparing to invest several hundred million euro in a partnership with Nvidia to expand AI computing and model training. The UK Government is considering intervening in Sky's £1.6bn acquisition of ITV's broadcasting operations over public-interest concerns. Meanwhile, BNY reported Q3 earnings per share up 24% to $2.34, beating analyst expectations as higher interest income and fees lifted profits.

Property & Energy

Ireland’s wind farms are setting records while the wires, workers and planning decisions needed to use that power lag behind.

Wind farms generated 1,256 GWh in September, a record for the month and 37% of demand, says Wind Energy Ireland. The grid link to match is late: Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien says the 700MW Celtic Interconnector to France will not carry power until 2029, three years after the 2026 date promised in 2019, with costs now estimated at €2bn and EirGrid still targeting delivery in late 2028.

Retrofit shows the same gap. Home-upgrade applications are up 96% this year, yet NetZero Group says completed installations fall short of what the Government’s 2030 goals need. It plans to double staff to 2,000 by 2030 and is targeting €400m revenue, up from €200m. Engineers Ireland’s Dave Murphy will warn that up to 30,000 more engineers may be needed by 2031.

Dublin Airport handled just under 29 million passengers in nine months, up 4%, with the McEvaddys’ DAT3 expecting 37.5 million this year, against a 32 million planning cap suspended by a High Court stay. DAA has sought 40 million, pending environmental assessments. DAT3 argues its €3.5bn plan, including an M2 link, could reach about 70 million passengers, against an estimated €5.7bn for DAA’s 40 to 45 million.

In Ballsbridge, Renmark has applied for 438 hotel and aparthotel rooms, estimated at €140m, on a site once approved for offices, after speculative office funding dried up, its director says. That is an application, not a permission.

Watch Monaghan County Council, where Mr O’Brien expects North-South Interconnector consents shortly, with work due next year.

In Monday’s Tá, the Sector Spotlight will be Tech & AI.

Friday – The Week in Summary…

Ireland spent the week putting big money behind business growth, while some of the country's biggest operational and political challenges proved harder to settle. The Government doubled its SME lending scheme to €1bn, launched Startup Ireland with ambitions to support 1,000 companies by 2030, and outlined a separate €1bn investment programme to help Irish businesses scale internationally. OpenAI announced another 200 Dublin jobs, LearnUpon secured €44.7m in financing for expansion, and commercial property investment surpassed €2bn in the first nine months of the year. Meanwhile, more than 300,000 public-sector workers were called out on strike as pay negotiations stalled, PTSB faced fresh takeover complications, and today's EY findings showed that construction costs are now an even bigger concern for developers than planning delays. A productive week for investment and enterprise, though Ireland's politicians, employers and developers still have plenty to sort out.

Over 25,000 people have signed up for tonight’s 24-hour CyberBreak, with families encouraged to switch off their devices and rediscover life offline. Anyone looking for something to do could apply for one of the LDA’s 328 new cost-rental apartments in Shankill next Tuesday, where rents start at €1,495 a month—if there’s a paper application form, that is. Meanwhile, Uisce Éireann faced questions after 97% of eligible staff received performance bonuses despite the regulator withholding €31m over missed targets. Perhaps the easiest way to switch off this weekend is to stop reading the news – just don’t forget to come back here on Monday!

The Read or Listen…  – RTÉ Brainstorm – Do you need an ‘admin night’ with friends to fix your finances?

Dr Oliver Browne of UCC explains why friends gathering for a couple of hours to clear bills, insurance forms and forgotten subscriptions is catching on. His case rests on body doubling, working beside others on dull tasks, and on research suggesting company improves performance on simple jobs. He is candid about limits: no full financial disclosure is needed, work tasks stay out, and it does not fix the bureaucracy shifted onto individuals. A light Friday read for anyone with an unanswered email. Link: READ or LISTEN  

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