Multinational moves, Boots' $8.9bn deal and Budget backlash.

08 October 2026

Good morning. Multinationals are making different moves in Ireland, investment continues despite rising costs, and ministers are defending Budget decisions against business criticism. Boots has a new owner, DAA is making €90m from parking, and health's record budget comes with a billion-euro headache. Let's get into it.

1. Multinationals In Ireland Show Three Different Sides Of The Business. HubSpot is cutting 7% of its global workforce, with the implications for its roughly 1,300 Irish employees still unclear. Meanwhile, Temu's Dublin subsidiary has set aside €100m for regulatory-related legal matters, even as annual revenue doubled to $3.5bn. State Street's Irish operations present another picture: more than €1bn in dividends paid since 2022, alongside a fall in employment at its main Irish company. Together, the stories highlight the different pressures on multinational employment, regulatory costs and profit distribution.

2. Investment In Ireland Takes Several Forms. UK wealth manager Rathbones has secured a Central Bank licence, allowing it to build its Dublin operation and serve clients across Ireland and the EU. Bank of Ireland is committing €10m to Venturewave Capital's Impact Ireland USA Fund, which backs Irish startups with international growth ambitions. Meanwhile, offshore wind regulator MARA will see its budget rise to €10m in 2027, with additional resources intended to speed up licensing decisions. One is bringing financial services into Ireland, another is backing companies to expand abroad, and the third is addressing the permissions needed to get investment projects moving. All different, but important, investments needed to grow Irish business.

3. Irish-Founded Businesses Find Different Routes To Growth. Construction materials giant CRH has agreed to acquire the Danish and Finnish operations of Sweden's NCC, expanding its exposure to major infrastructure projects across the Nordics. Financial terms were not disclosed, and regulatory approval is still required. Hostelworld, meanwhile, is having a more complicated time internationally. Third-quarter revenue rose 7% to €27.9m, but transactions fell 2%, with the Iran conflict, higher travel costs and weaker organic search traffic weighing on demand. Its shares opened 13% lower on Wednesday. International growth looks very different depending on the business model, but the growth efforts are the important part.

4. Ministers Defend Budget Decisions As Businesses Push Back. Two ministers are defending Budget 2027 against criticism from businesses facing higher costs. Enterprise Minister Peter Burke says raising the employer PRSI threshold from €552 to €600 a week will help offset the 79-cent minimum wage increase to €14.94, although ISME estimates the rise will cost employers an additional €1,786.72 annually per full-time worker on that rate. Meanwhile, Housing Minister James Browne insists developers have "no excuse" not to build, pointing to previous measures addressing viability. Developers welcomed the increase in Help to Buy relief to €35,000 but criticised the unchanged €500,000 property-price ceiling and the failure to extend reduced VAT to duplex apartments.

5. DAA Makes €90m From Airport Parking. Dublin and Cork airport operator DAA generated €90m from car parking in 2025, averaging €1.73m a week and accounting for almost 8% of its €1.18bn turnover. Another €164m came from non-retail concessions, including car hire, airport lounges, fast-track security and advertising, up 7.8% on the previous year. Passenger numbers may grab the headlines, but the business of getting people to, from and through airports is generating substantial revenue of its own.

Canada’s Weston family has agreed to buy Boots for $8.9bn (€7.7bn), including debt, from Sycamore Partners and the Pessina family. The deal includes its UK and Irish pharmacies, with plans to invest in stores, online retail and healthcare services. Oil climbed back above $100 a barrel on Wednesday after fresh Iranian attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, renewing pressure on transport and energy costs. HSBC is planning sweeping cuts to its UK wealth-management business as it expands its use of AI, with around 70% of financial adviser roles reportedly at risk, subject to consultation. Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has acquired an 8.8% stake in Under Armour, extending its strategy of building stakes in struggling fashion and sportswear brands. It follows a takeover offer that brought its Hugo Boss shareholding to almost 48% earlier this year, alongside a smaller investment in Puma. Meanwhile, Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft now account for more than 21% of the S&P 500. That’s an awful lot of America’s stock market resting on three companies.

Health & Pharma

Health & Pharma has a record budget and a large deficit in the same week, so the question is how much new money is already spoken for.

Budget 2027 gives health €29.1bn in the form of €27.4bn of day-to-day spending and €1.7bn of capital. The extra €1.6bn in current funding is a 6.2% rise on 2026's €25.8bn, but the staffing ceiling stays at 139,744. That excludes this year's projected €1bn overspend, which Labour's Marie Sherlock says could swallow the new money. These are only allocations for now, the test is whether it turns into delivered services.

One driver is private insurance income. The Business Post reports it was worth €310m to public hospitals in 2025, against more than €500m before public-only consultant contracts began in 2023. About 70% of consultants have signed, so insurers no longer pay hospitals for their private work. The HSE expects to lose about €145m in 2026, with €165m to unwind later, which feeds into the overspend rather than adding to it.

On pay, the Budget sets aside €1.2bn for a public-sector deal, which ICTU's Public Services Committee says is not enough. INMO members are to hold lunchtime hospital protests ahead of action on 14 and 21 October.

For industry, EU health ministers met informally in Dublin on clinical trials and medicines manufacturing. Dunbar Pharma, an Athlone cannabinoid processor with 26 staff and €11m raised, plans UK entry by the end of 2027, according to an Enterprise Ireland partnership feature.

Watch whether the Government and unions re-engage, directly or through the WRC, before the 14 October action.

In Friday’s Tá, the Sector Spotlight will be Property & Energy.

Thursday - The Deal Desk…

Paramount / Warner Bros Discovery: Paramount Skydance has completed its $110bn (€97.7bn) acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, creating a media giant spanning film, television and streaming. The combined company will operate under the Skydance name, with its shares trading on the New York Stock Exchange under SKYD. The deal followed a US court-approved settlement requiring additional film production commitments.

C.H. Robinson / RXO: US logistics giant C.H. Robinson has agreed to acquire freight broker RXO in a $5.8bn cash-and-shares deal, expanding its position in North American freight brokerage.

CRH / NCC: Irish-founded construction materials group CRH has agreed to acquire NCC’s Danish and Finnish aggregates and asphalt operations, expanding its exposure to Nordic infrastructure projects. Financial terms were undisclosed, with completion expected in 2027, subject to regulatory approval.

Carlsberg / PepsiCo: Carlsberg has agreed to buy PepsiCo’s bottling businesses in Georgia and Armenia, extending their partnership to 17 markets. Financial terms were undisclosed, and the Armenian acquisition remains subject to government approval.

RTÉ boss Kevin Bakhurst says he was "shocked and dismayed" after the Government withheld €20m in expected funding, citing slow reforms. After years of undisclosed payments, barter accounts and Oireachtas hearings, it seems Montrose has finally discovered a financial arrangement it wasn't told about in advance. Meanwhile, Anthropic boss Dario Amodei received $18m in compensation last year, mostly in shares. Not bad for running a company whose own researchers and executives have repeatedly warned that the technology they're developing could threaten humanity. At least the pay is good while we're still here to spend it. And to complete the day's questionable financial arrangements, it emerged that UK tax authorities investigated Manchester City's tax affairs back in 2018 and didn't discover all the off-balance sheet arrangements... okay. Suddenly, RTÉ's barter account looks almost amateur.

The Read - RTÉ Brainstorm - What happens to all the heat generated by Irish data centres?

TU Dublin's Dr Sajad Alimohammadi explores how waste heat from Ireland's data centres could be used to warm homes and businesses. With data centres consuming 23% of Ireland's metered electricity in 2025, he examines the potential of district heating, including a Tallaght scheme already heating council offices, a university campus and 133 apartments using heat from an Amazon facility. Link: What happens to all the heat generated by Irish data centres?

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