Monday

20 July 2026

Good morning. Ryanair is carrying more passengers but making much less from them, Harris is promising a longer run of tax cuts and housing investors are pushing for better terms. Abroad, Andy Burnham enters Number 10 while Spain wakes up as world champions. Let’s get into it.

1. Ryanair Is Filling More Seats For Less Money. Ryanair’s quarterly profit fell 34% to €538m, missing forecasts, even as passenger numbers rose 6% to 61.3 million. Average fares dropped 6%, with summer pricing now expected to remain modestly lower than last year. More passengers are still travelling, but weaker fares and Middle East uncertainty are making each full aircraft less profitable.

2. Irish Financial Services Keeps Consolidating. Pepper Advantage has agreed to acquire Dilosk, owner of ICS Mortgages, subject to regulatory approval, returning the loan-servicing group to Irish mortgage lending. Howden has also acquired Limerick-based Thomond Asset Management as it expands its financial-advice business. Larger international platforms are continuing to buy the distribution, customers, and regulated infrastructure needed to grow quickly in Ireland.

3. Housing Investors Want Better Terms, Not Fewer Assets. Property firms want the 9% construction VAT rate extended across homebuilding alongside changes to capital-gains tax, stamp duty and the residential zoned-land tax. Separately, DWS reportedly withdrew the €220m sale of 368 Dún Laoghaire apartments despite above-guide bids because similarly yielding replacement assets were scarce. Housing capital is available, but it is becoming increasingly particular about tax and returns before viability is proved.

4. Harris Wants Tax Cuts As Consumers Pull Back. Finance Minister Simon Harris wants the next four budgets to gradually raise the threshold for the higher income-tax rate. The pitch arrives as rising costs continue to shape household spending, with four in ten consumers yet to book a holiday this year amid price and global-instability concerns. Moving beyond temporary supports may be politically attractive, but the eventual tax figures will need to release enough money to change actual spending.

5. Food Businesses Are Chasing Scale. Sodexo has secured one of its largest global workplace-food contracts with Meta, while Tesco is investing in a new Tyrrelstown superstore and drinks brand Something & Nothing is expanding distribution through Musgrave and BWG. The routes differ, but the commercial logic is similar: large contracts, bigger stores and wider wholesale reach offer food businesses more dependable volume than relying on individual outlets alone.

Andy Burnham becomes Britain’s new prime minister today, replacing Keir Starmer and promising greater control over spending and delivery from Number 10. The US launched a ninth consecutive night of strikes on Iran after another American service member died, while Tehran retaliated across the Gulf and oil moved above $90 as two tankers were reportedly immobilised in the Strait of Hormuz. That renewed energy shock is strengthening expectations of another ECB rate increase later this year. PayPal’s board reportedly considers Stripe and Advent’s $53bn approach inadequate, although it has not formally rejected the proposal and talks may continue. So, this week opens with new leadership in London, higher oil risk and expensive money refusing to leave the news pages.

Tech & AI

Ireland's tech sector is running two currents at once this week: AI-linked capital is arriving in record volumes even as AI-linked job losses keep eating into the workforce beneath it.

Intel confirmed a €5 billion capital investment at its Leixlip campus, upgrading fabrication capacity for Xeon 6 and next-generation Intel 3 chips, creating several hundred permanent roles and engaging around 2,000 construction and engineering tradespeople, with most spending due by 2027. Days later Intel and Google Cloud expanded their strategic partnership, rolling Gemini Enterprise across Intel's engineering, supply chain and operations functions and using Google's cloud infrastructure to speed chip design simulations, a sign the AI relationship between the two is deepening well beyond hardware supply.

The labour picture is more mixed. TikTok is mid-consultation on roughly 300 Dublin redundancies tied to a trust and safety restructuring, and separately sent some unaffected staff erroneous termination notices, an error it has blamed on process failure rather than any change in numbers. Meta's contractor exposure widened again, with outsourcing firm Concentrix cutting Dublin-based roles as Meta keeps redirecting spend toward AI infrastructure. A Department of Finance-informed Irish Times analysis this week found graduate hiring is "tightening" rather than collapsing, but confirmed AI is compressing routine entry-level tasks fastest in accounting, HR and administrative functions, with youth employment in tech already down sharply since 2023.

Brussels added to the compliance load too: new Digital Markets Act measures, binding from January, will force Google, whose EU operations run from Dublin, to share search data with OpenAI and rival search engines and open Android to competing AI assistants.

Watch whether Concentrix and TikTok's at-risk roles are reabsorbed once consultations close, testing whether Ireland's investment boom is creating enough new jobs to offset what AI is removing from the same firms.

In Tuesday’s Tá, the Sector Spotlight will be Legal & Regulatory.

Monday - The Weekend Round-Up…

Aughinish Alumina’s forthcoming report is expected to fall short of the legal threshold for nationalisation, leaving Government to pursue other options on Russian ownership and exports. PTSB ended the week at €3.03, above Bawag’s agreed €2.97 offer, as minority-shareholder opposition continued before the 30 July vote. DWS also withdrew a €220m Dublin apartment sale despite above-guide bids, while 65% of people backed State spending on major sporting events. Capital was available all weekend; agreement on where it should go was less straightforward.

Ireland’s heatwave has sent Maxol’s iced-coffee sales up 215% and ice-cream sales up 184%, just as Tesco removed disposable barbecues over wildfire fears. FIFA, meanwhile, has decided the World Cup winners also need Super Bowl-style championship rings, with another 1,996 available for supporters to buy. Summer now comes with cold coffee, no portable flames and football merchandise for people who did not actually win anything... Big Congratulations to the ones who did though - 🇪🇸 Vamos España!!!

The Read – The Irish Times – Out Of Time: The Art Of Knowing When To Step Down From The Top Job

Pilita Clark asks why political and business leaders often remain in powerful roles after their ability to perform has visibly declined. Using Peter Hennessy’s decision to leave the House of Lords alongside Warren Buffett’s carefully planned succession, she separates age from impairment and focuses on judgment, identity and the people invested in keeping a leader in place. It is a great read on succession planning, governance and recognising when staying has become more damaging than leaving. The Link: Out Of Time: The Art Of Knowing When To Step Down From The Top Job

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

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