Thursday

25 June 2026

Good morning. Ireland has AI glossing up the growth figures, State bodies fighting budgets and Dublin offices being tested on whether they actually work. Abroad, oil has calmed, Castlelake is still chasing easyJet and India is looking at Europe’s defence bill with Ireland in view. Let’s get into it.

1. ESRI Warns Growth May Look Better Than It Feels. ESRI says AI and data-centre investment could put a gloss on the domestic economy, even as inflation expectations rise and consumer-spending forecasts weaken. That is a useful warning before anyone mistakes headline growth for financial comfort, as unlikely as that is. The Irish economy tends to look strong in the accounts while shoppers, employers and wage talks feel continue to feel the pinch.

2. State Institutions Continue to Fight the Figures. After last week’s row over An Post seeking a CEO salary above the Government’s preferred limit, Fergal Leamy, formerly of Coillte and Glen Dimplex, is now set to take the role on the role with a salary of €270,000. After yesterday's Central Bank cost issues, the HSE’s new boss is also facing major financial pressure adding to the list of State institutions under pressure. Different bodies, same awkward equation: public institutions want capacity, talent and control all while struggling with budgets.

3. Dublin Offices Meet The Usability Test. The owners of the Exo Building, the location of An Post's new HQ, say alleged defects and security issues have left five floors vacant, in a successful commercial-rates appeal. Add planning movement at Phibsborough and reported stronger leasing in parts of Dublin, and the market looks selective rather than simply strong. The next office cycle will reward buildings that are occupiable, credible and easy to price.

4. Dublin Chases The Higher-Value Money. Trading 212 is setting up a Dublin hub after a reported €40m investment, creating 40 roles, while Ireland is narrowing Luxembourg’s lead in private assets. That matters because private credit, private equity and alternative funds bring legal, tax, compliance and administration work with them. A US CEO-pay comparison adds a bit: reporting says Irish CEOs in the US earn more; Ireland wants global money, but wants it without importing the full expensive pay packet.

5. Sustainability Meets The Cost Test. Greenvolt and Amarenco are advancing Cork solar plans, Shannon Airport is pushing its sustainability credentials, EirGrid’s strategy includes a long-running power-line issue, and Greencoat Renewables is preparing a further €25m shareholder return. Add expensive EV charging into the mix and the pattern is blunt enough. Ireland wants greener infrastructure, but the bill, grid and investor case still have make financial sense.

Oil fell again as tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz moved closer to normal, giving markets some relief without removing the shipping-risk discount. easyJet rejected Castlelake’s fourth takeover proposal, worth about £4.9bn, but granted limited access to commercial information before a 5 July deadline. ITV and Sky remain in active talks over a possible sale of ITV’s broadcasting arm, a useful sign of how traditional media is still trying to defend scale against streaming. India is planning about €210bn in European defence spending and sees Ireland as particularly important, turning Europe’s rearmament push into a trade and advanced-manufacturing opportunity rather than just a NATO budget story.

Health & Pharma

It has been a week where the noise was less about new treatments and more about who delivers them and who pays for them, two questions Ireland's health system keeps answering under pressure rather than by design.

Today, consultants and specialist doctors across Northern Ireland's hospitals are striking for 24 hours, the first such action by consultants there, with resident doctors due a full walkout on June 29th. The dispute centres on pay eroded since 2008, and BMA Northern Ireland has explicitly pointed to more attractive salaries in the Republic as a pull factor drawing doctors south, sharpening a cross-border competition for clinical staff that Irish hospitals already feel.

Closer to the policy centre, NCPE director Professor Michael Barry pushed back publicly against calls for "early access" to costly new medicines ahead of value assessment, estimating it could add €1 billion to the drugs budget within five years and far more for rare-disease and cancer treatments; he argued most current delays sit with pharmaceutical companies' own submission timelines, not the HSE's. That tension will shape Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill's promised end-of-year review of drug approval processes, with medicines already consuming roughly one in eight health euros.

Globally, a landmark Lancet study found cervical cancer deaths among under-25s in England have fallen to zero for the first time on record, crediting the school HPV programme since 2008 with preventing some 200 deaths. Ireland's own uptake, having dipped below 60 per cent during a 2016 misinformation scare, has recovered to 78.4 per cent, and CervicalCheck data shows high-grade cytology roughly halving in vaccinated cohorts.

More modestly, over 20 European scientists gathered in Dublin this week for the European Research Council ahead of Ireland's EU presidency, lobbying for doubled research funding as Irish researchers have already drawn over €200 million since 2021.

The thread linking the NI strike and the ERC's funding pitch is the same: Ireland's real health and pharma challenge now is talent and money, not discovery. Watch whether Stormont moves before June 29th, and which way Carroll MacNeill's review leans.

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

Thursday - The Deal Desk…

Pinta: Cork consultancy Pinta acquired Mentors.ie, investing €125,000 to grow Ireland's mentoring panel from five names to twenty for stretched SMEs.

Colata: Irish sports-AI startup Colata, Enterprise Ireland's best-funded sports client, seeks a further €1m seed round for its injury-prediction platform.

Trading 212: The London trading app opened a Dublin hub after a €40m investment, creating 40 jobs under Central Bank oversight.

Amarenco: Cork renewable developer Amarenco contracted Greenvolt Next to build three solar farms worth 32MW, powering 38,000 homes.

BOI says staycations are rising as May air-travel spend fell 6.4%, which should only help Shannon’s 43% emissions-cuts. Anyone still flying can relax: Portadown’s Thompson Aero Seating has revenue up 30% to £224m so there shouldn't be a lack of available seats. Staying put? Ballymaloe’s directors shared more than €350,000, so clearly the Cork lunch-making economy is still doing a bit of business, or there’s an asteroid passing safely by on Saturday for the stargazers. Cork lunch or cosmic theatre, the options are there.

The Read – The Irish Times – DCU Spin-Out Solving The Costly Clean-Energy Problem Of Dirty Wind Turbines

Wind power is usually discussed in megawatts, grid connections and planning rows, but this piece gets into the less glamorous maintenance problem: dirty turbine blades. AeroBeam, a DCU spin-out, is developing laser-based cleaning technology to make turbines more efficient without the rope-access issues. It is a worthy reminder that the energy transition is not just about building assets. It is also about keeping them working, safely, cheaply and often enough to justify the investment. Links to Listen: DCU Spin-Out Solving The Costly Clean-Energy Problem Of Dirty Wind Turbines

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

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