❌ICG trouble, fuel pressure and record jobs

21 August 2026

Good morning. ICG’s takeover is suddenly in real trouble, fuel excise is heading for a September crunch point and Cork has another 1,150 homes entering the planning appeals system. Elsewhere, Irish employment hits a record while fresh growth capital lands in Limerick, and America is providing most of today’s global drama. Let’s get into it.

1. ICG’s Takeover Is Now In Real Trouble. Irish Continental Group’s independent board says early proxy votes indicate Eamonn Rothwell’s €1.2bn management buyout will likely fail at next Friday’s shareholder meetings. Glass Lewis has also recommended investors reject the €8-a-share offer, putting it directly against ISS, which backed the deal. Votes can still change, but after a week of arguments over valuation, the question has shifted rather decisively to whether Rothwell can get the transaction through at all.

2. Fuel Excise Is Heading For Crunch Time. Petrol is due to rise 9 cent a litre and diesel 10 cent from 1st September as the first stage of excise cuts is reversed, potentially pushing average diesel above €2. Further increases are scheduled through December, while another carbon-tax rise lands in October. Government says it is monitoring the situation, but changing the legislated timetable may require the Dáil to return. That gives the coalition ten days to decide whether to absorb the political cost or the fiscal one.

3. A 1,150-Home Cork Scheme Is Heading For Appeal. O’Flynn Group plans to appeal Cork City Council’s refusal of its proposed Maglin development to An Coimisiún Pleanála. The council cited shortcomings around transport infrastructure, car dependence, road capacity and environmental assessment. At a time when pressure is firmly on to get more homes built, a scheme of this scale being pushed into another planning round shows how difficult it remains to turn housing targets into actual permissions, even before construction starts.

4. Limerick’s Redfaire Gets €13m For Its Next Growth Phase. BGF has bought a minority stake in Oracle services specialist Redfaire for €13m, with the money supporting international expansion, future acquisitions and its Oracle Fusion business. The Limerick-founded company employs more than 200 people across Ireland, Britain, mainland Europe and North America, and made €2.3m profit in 2024. BGF itself has €250m available for Irish SMEs, so this is another example of growth capital moving into established Irish technology businesses rather than only early-stage start-ups.

5. Ireland Has A Record 2.84m People At Work. Employment reached a new high in the second quarter, with more than 20,000 jobs added over the past year and unemployment still relatively low at 4.9%. The picture isn’t straightforward, however, as unemployment rose by 10,100 to 151,000, while professional, scientific and technical services lost more than 17,000 jobs year-on-year. The headline is a resilient labour market, but the under-workings of the sector breakdown are some cause for concern.

In what could be renamed America in 60 Seconds for today, the US Treasury’s attempt to calm long-term borrowing costs is already being tested, with its plan to at least double purchases of 10 to 30-year bonds initially lifting markets before longer yields began climbing again. That comes as US federal debt passes $40tn, up $3tn in a year, keeping fiscal concerns firmly in view. Oil added another layer after Donald Trump threatened an intensified economic campaign against Iran and countries helping it trade, pushing Brent towards $94 a barrel. Japan’s core inflation rose to 1.8% in July, keeping a possible September rate rise in play. Walmart provided the consumer wrinkle, with US comparable sales growth slowing to its weakest pace in more than six years.

Property & Energy

Wind and grid dynamics dominate energy this week, while property finance shows the market working around, rather than through, the traditional banks.

Wind Energy Ireland's latest figures capture the tension well. Five wind farms won planning approval last quarter, the strongest showing since early 2025, adding 311 megawatts of capacity. However, the group also flagged a "massive" backlog, with 48 projects now awaiting a decision from An Coimisiún Pleanála, up 70% on two years ago and representing 2,668 megawatts of stalled potential, some of it waiting more than two years.

Gas Networks Ireland connected its first biomethane producer directly to the network, Bia Energy's €90m plant at Huntstown, which will supply enough renewable gas to generate 120 gigawatt hours of electricity annually, against average daily southern consumption of 90 gigawatt hours.

On property, UK-headquartered Go Corporate Finance is expanding its Irish operation, targeting what its chief executive calls a "huge gap" in development funding between €2m and €10m, where banks remain thin on the ground. The broker arranges facilities from €200,000 up to €100m, averaging around €500,000, with rates from 5.5% and decisions promised within days rather than the three to four months typical of conventional bank lending. In Cork, it recently structured an €11.5m bridging facility to help a developer secure a mixed-use Docklands site with a projected €25m development value, illustrating the scale of deal it is chasing as it grows further in Dublin and Cork.

The forward watch is whether planning capacity at An Coimisiún Pleanála moves quickly enough this quarter to prevent the wind backlog from widening further.

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

Friday – The Week in Summary…

This has been a week where the headline rarely told the whole story. Irish exports to the US fell 65%, but much of that reflected last year’s tariff-driven pharma rush rather than an economy suddenly losing its biggest market. Employment reached a record 2.84 million, even as unemployment rose and some professional sectors shed jobs. Investment remained busy, from Exponent backing OFS to BGF putting €13m into Redfaire, while Sisk’s profits rose despite lower turnover and Medmark secured fresh private-equity backing.

Housing and infrastructure told the less comfortable story as more home building has commenced, land is changing hands and district heating is being redesigned to attract private capital, but at the same time major schemes are still getting caught in planning and appeals. Meanwhile, ICG’s €1.2bn takeover went from a firm final offer to a deal its own independent board now says is likely to fail on current proxy votes.

That's not a bad business week, but almost every positive headline came with a qualification.

Mark Zuckerberg has bought Waterford’s 440-acre Strancally Castle, reportedly for somewhere around €20m to €30m, which at least gives Meta’s chief somewhere suitable to contemplate whether his trainers make him look too much like a “young tech bro”. The Business Post has advice for that today, plus wines ranging from a €10 Chilean Pinot Noir to a €120 Chardonnay for stocking the cellar. If castle life gets stressful, workplace tech may soon be able to monitor his facial expressions (albeit coming with a warning from The Irish Times), and if you're looking for some relief after reading that... Ford is offering test drives of its electric models in Waterford next month, with €30 going to Irish Guide Dogs for every person who gets behind the wheel.

The Read – BusinessPlus – RTÉ sets price to advertise during Taylor fight

Katie Taylor’s final fight will be shown free-to-air on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on 5 September as she faces Flora Pili in front of around 80,000 people at Croke Park. MediaPLUS looks at what that audience is worth commercially. RTÉ is charging €30,000 for an advertising package including a 30-second TV spot and 100,000 Player impressions, with premiums for particular breaks and positions. Am interesting look behind one of Ireland’s biggest sporting events and the business of turning national attention into advertising revenue. Link: RTÉ sets price to advertise during Taylor fight

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