🏭 Manufacturing is producing big numbers, PayPal cuts & strike votes

01 September 2026

Good morning. A new month and Irish manufacturing is picking up nicely, even as PayPal puts another 164 roles at risk and public pay talks move closer to actual industrial action. We also have more questions around the Government’s new investment accounts, a sizeable Dublin commitment from Klaviyo and a fairly busy week for the lawyers. Let’s get into it.

1. Irish Manufacturing Builds Momentum. Ireland’s manufacturing PMI rose from 55.1 to 55.4 in August, while new orders grew at their fastest pace since April 2022 and output expanded at its strongest rate since April 2025. Manufacturers also continued hiring, despite weaker export demand, transport delays linked to Middle East disruption and higher energy, fuel and raw-material costs. The stronger order books are doing more than lifting the headline index, with business confidence also reaching its highest level since January.

2. Investment Accounts Still Need The Important Numbers. A Royal London survey says 85% of Irish adults intend to use the Government’s new Personal Investment Account, but the tax-free threshold, annual tax rate and contribution cap are still unknown. More than half expect to invest up to €250 a month. The appetite seems to be there, but the bigger test is whether the final Budget numbers make the account attractive enough to turn that stated intention into actual investment.

3. PayPal Puts Another 164 Irish Roles At Risk. PayPal is proposing staffing changes in Ireland, with 164 roles reportedly affected, almost 12% of its roughly 1,400-person workforce here. The Department of Enterprise has received a collective redundancy notification and consultation is beginning, with redundancies proposed for October. Separately, new research puts youth unemployment at 12.3% in July, a figure beyond pre-crash levels. Near-full national employment is hiding some much less comfortable pockets underneath it.

4. Public Pay Talks Now Come With A Strike Mandate. SIPTU members have voted overwhelmingly for industrial action in the public-service pay dispute, with 97% backing strike action and 98% supporting industrial action more broadly. The previous agreement expired at the end of June, and SIPTU will now confer with other unions as negotiations over its replacement continue. Government is no longer dealing with the possibility of a mandate since one of the biggest unions now has one.

5. Klaviyo Commits To Dublin As Energy Worries Grow. Klaviyo has signed a 10-year lease on 57,264 sq, ft, at One Le Pole Square for a new EMEA headquarters due to open in 2027, less than 18 months after arriving in Dublin. At the same time, Fáilte Ireland is warning that tourism businesses are increasingly concerned about high energy costs and medium-term grid capacity and are blaming data centres. Companies are still committing to Ireland, but power is increasingly becoming part of the operating calculation.

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US-Iran fighting returned after more than a month of relative calm, pushing Brent back above $90 and adding another complication as markets increased bets on further interest-rate hikes. Aon agreed to buy USI Insurance Services from KKR for $17bn, handing the private-equity group a $3.3bn after-tax cash return. Nvidia is investing $3.5bn in Taiwan’s MediaTek through convertible bonds as it pushes more chipmakers towards its data-centre ecosystem. Shein raised $1.7bn in Hong Kong at a $26bn valuation, well below the $100bn it once commanded, ahead of its trading debut today. And German inflation edged up to 2.9%, adding another argument for an ECB rate hike this month.

Legal & Regulatory

Legal and regulatory this week was defined by disputes continuing and enforcement stretching further than usual, both at home and in Brussels.

The criminal legal aid standoff deepened as more than 100 Dublin solicitors agreed to extend their withdrawal from District Court cases into September, rejecting Jim O'Callaghan's €520 flat fee model, and are now weighing whether to bring barristers into the action. The Law Society publicly rejected O'Callaghan's claim that it simply "bags" every concession and demands more.

Big tech's reach into Irish and European regulation widened on several fronts. Brussels designated ChatGPT, Reddit and Roblox under the Digital Services Act, giving the Commission new powers to police risks to minors from December. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties pressed Meta on whether child-safety restrictions from its $18bn US settlement will extend to Europe, while Coimisiún na Meán separately allocated €4.4m to public interest journalism, with a further scheme for court and local democracy reporting expected later this year.

A quieter but consequential fight is playing out at the CJEU, where the Association of Corporate Counsel, representing over 48,000 in-house lawyers, is intervening to defend legal privilege after the European Commission sought disclosure of US in-house counsel's advice in an antitrust probe, a case with real stakes for how multinationals in Ireland structure legal teams.

Elsewhere, Aer Lingus and its pilots clashed over IAG works council consultation rights, Deloitte agreed to pay Washington $21.5m over DEI-related contracting claims, and Brown Thomas formally objected to a Grafton Street beauty-retail planning application.

Watch whether O'Callaghan meets solicitors again before courts reopen, or barristers actually join the strike.

In Wednesday’s Tá, the Sector Spotlight will be Finance & Markets.

Tuesday – On the Move…

Rory Williams, Ronan Group Real Estate: Williams stepped down as chief executive in July and has moved into a consultancy role, with Jodie Ronan taking an expanded COO role and Johnny Ronan becoming executive chairman.

Helen Bray, Egis UK & Ireland: Appointed finance director of the Operations and Maintenance division, covering a portfolio that includes more than 470km of Irish motorways, the Dublin Tunnel and Jack Lynch Tunnel.

Cara McHugh, RTÉ news2day: Joins as the programme’s new presenter alongside Cathal Dowd after a national call-out and audition process. The Roscommon journalist previously worked with RTÉ, the Sligo Weekender, TheJournal.ie and Ireland’s Classic Hits Radio.

Stephen Tapley, Mediolanum International Funds: Joins the Dublin-based investment manager as deputy head of high yield after 14 years at Royal London Asset Management and almost two decades in sub-investment-grade credit.

A quarter of Ireland’s pubs have disappeared since 2005, with 2,205 closures and Limerick losing 37% of its total, which is some going for a country that still treats “where are we meeting?” as a serious planning question. If things get desperate, Lake Garda’s Bella Italia resort is apparently so popular with Irish holidaymakers it now has a street called “Dublino”. LIV Golf, meanwhile, is reportedly preparing for Chapter 11 after burning through an estimated $5bn. After all the big Saudi spending, it's finally finding a way to get the numbers under par. And Indian police recovered €3,600 of jewellery after CCTV revealed the thief was a stray dog. What must have started as an exciting day for him ended pretty ruff… sorry.

The Read – Business Post (Requires Free Account) – Here's Tim Cook's final letter to staff as he wraps up 15 years as Apple CEO

Cook's farewell memo, sent yesterday, his last day as chief executive before moving to executive chairman, reads like a leadership case study in succession done deliberately rather than a corporate announcement and more. He credits the team rather than himself for Apple's growth since 2011, praises successor John Ternus's product instincts, and frames the handover as continuity rather than departure. For business leaders thinking about succession planning and founder transitions, it is a rare unfiltered look at how one of the world's most valuable companies is choosing to talk about change at the very top. Link: Here's Tim Cook's final letter to staff as he wraps up 15 years as Apple CEO

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