Thursday

23 July 2026

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Good morning. Income-tax cuts are beginning to take shape, legal-aid disputes are spreading across the courts and employers are discovering that cutting jobs carries costs of its own. Abroad, oil is above $95, Alphabet is putting numbers behind the AI spending boom and Revolut has reached another eye-catching valuation. Worth Your Time hears Simon Harris pressed on Ireland’s new savings and investment scheme. Let’s get into it.

1. Budget Tax Cuts Start Taking Shape. Of the €8.5bn budget package, €1.5bn is set aside for tax measure with most of it directed towards helping workers keep more of their income, Simon Harris has said. A €2,000 increase to the income-tax band could cost about €505m, while changes to credits could push the personal-tax bill above €1bn. Investment accounts, R&D relief and reform of deemed disposal are now competing for what remains.

2. Legal-Aid Dispute Spreads Across The Courts. Criminal legal-aid solicitors are already withdrawing services over the new €520 flat fee, sharply reducing case coverage and disrupting Dublin’s courts. A separate dispute is now developing in civil legal aid, where fees have not increased since 2012. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan has agreed to meet the Law Society, but the two disputes remain distinct and neither has been resolved, all causing major issues in the courts just before the shutdown.

3. Fintech Growth Meets A Controls Test. The Central Bank says some Irish payment and e-money firms are changing products, pursuing acquisitions and projecting growth faster than their governance and local operating capacity can support. It also criticised firms treating compliance as a tick-box exercise rather than part of a sustainable business model. At the same time, Irish regtech CalQRisk has been accepted into the UK regulator’s AI sandbox to test its technology. Innovation is still being encouraged, but regulators want the control functions built before the growth arrives, yet the Central Bank is struggling to check it.

4. Cutting Jobs Is Creating Costs Of Its Own. RTÉ’s redundancy programme cost €8.5m, showing that even the Exchequer is not insulated from the upfront price of cutting costs. Diageo is also reportedly preparing reductions of between 20% and 30% across some teams, with 150 Irish roles already under threat. Beyond individual employers, Ireland’s exposure to high-paid multinational work leaves employment and growth vulnerable if the AI investment boom reverses.

5. Greencore Raises Its Outlook. Greencore, the Dublin-HQ'd convenience food manufacturer, has upgraded its full-year guidance after stronger trading, giving the Irish food group more confidence heading into the remainder of the year. Elsewhere, Urban Gym Group is expanding its Dublin footprint with its acquisition of Iconic Health, and another prominent St Stephen’s Green property is moving through the market to become flexible workspace. Consumer-facing businesses are still deploying capital, but they are concentrating it behind proven demand in strong locations and businesses already producing returns.

Andy Burnham’s new UK Government is putting industrial policy straight onto the business agenda, with defence spending, Rolls-Royce threatening it, and trade positioning likely to shape how Ireland navigates the widening gap between British and EU rules. Oil climbed above $95 a barrel as the US-Iran conflict entered another day of strikes and threats around shipping routes, keeping fuel, freight and inflation exposed. Alphabet’s quarterly revenue rose 24% to $119.8bn as cloud sales jumped 82%, although capex doubled to $44.9bn as investors demanded evidence that AI spending can pay. Tesla’s revenue and deliveries increased, but earnings missed expectations and free cash flow remained negative. Meanwhile, Revolut launched an employee share sale valuing it at $115bn, while easyJet shares fell 13% amid uncertainty over EU airline-ownership rules.

Health & Pharma

Health & Pharma this week sits at the intersection of dealmaking momentum and mounting friction over who delivers care and at what cost.

Global pharma kept consolidating: Repligen agreed to buy BioLife Solutions for $1.5 billion, while GSK secured its first lung cancer approval for Jideytro through a deal with Nuvalent, and Merck won FDA approval for a new cholesterol pill, E3300. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk's marketing dispute escalated further, with Lilly telling its rival to "compete with our products" after a lawsuit over obesity drug claims. Overshadowing much of this was Donald Trump floating tariffs of up to 200 per cent on imported generic drugs, a threat that has generic manufacturers and Reuters-tracked policy groups scrambling for exemptions given how thin margins already are in that segment.

Ireland's pharma footprint showed both strength and repair. Keenova Therapeutics, the Dublin-based drugmaker formerly known as Mallinckrodt, secured High Court approval for a $1.79 billion capital reduction as it tidies its balance sheet ahead of a planned stock market flotation later this year. Separately, Dublin-registered Brepco Biopharma won the right to market its hypotension drug Neoatricon across most of Europe after the High Court refused a Dutch firm, Piramal Critical Care, an injunction that would have blocked termination of their commercialisation deal; Piramal retains exclusivity only in Germany, the UK and Italy. Glenisk returned to profit five years after a factory fire nearly ended the business, and Irish Life reported claims payouts approaching €1 billion, underlining the pressure behind the insurance industry's tax relief request.

On the workforce side, the INMO came out against introducing physician assistants, while the IHCA sought urgent clarity on how scrapping HSE insourcing will affect patient capacity. Two whistleblower cases delivered sharp awards: a pharmacist dismissed weeks after disclosing her pregnancy won €50,000, and a senior manager at a disability charity won €323,000 for what a tribunal called egregious penalisation.

Watch whether Trump's generic tariff threat hardens into formal policy, since Irish-based manufacturers are heavily exposed to US-bound supply chains.

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

Thursday - The Deal Desk…

MHL Collection: The John Malone-backed hotel group has made a reported €95m investment in two hotels beside Dublin Airport, adding 438 rooms and giving it greater exposure to passenger growth around the State’s main aviation hub.

Medmark: The Irish occupational-health provider is reportedly close to securing investment, with fresh capital expected to support expansion as employers spend more on workplace health, absence management and compliance.

Fashion Connect Ireland: The clothing manufacturer has raised €600,000 to expand domestic production, betting that shorter supply chains and smaller production runs can create room for Irish manufacturing.

Repligen and BioLife Solutions: Repligen has agreed to acquire its fellow bioprocessing supplier in a $1.5bn deal, combining businesses that provide equipment and materials used in biological-drug manufacturing.

Frasers and Hugo Boss: Frasers Group has lifted its stake in Hugo Boss above 30%, crossing Germany’s mandatory-offer threshold as takeover discussions continue. The stake gives Mike Ashley’s group greater influence but does not make a full acquisition certain.

Stripe has been announced as the Ryder Cup’s official payments partner, meaning its Irish-founded technology will handle the egregiously likely priced merchandise, food, and drink at Adare Manor and after they can take pictures on Samsung's latest edition of their three new foldables, including a wider Fold 8 designed for better photos and video. Those phones may also appear when Dior’s Creative Director, Northern Irishman Jonathan Anderson, brings the fashion house to Trinity for the Fall/Winter 2027 show. 

The Listen - Understanding Money with Eoin McGee - Eoin Meets Tánaiste Simon Harris

In the final episode of his investing series, financial advisor Eoin McGee presses Simon Harris on the new savings and investment incentive flagged for Budget 2027, asking how it might ease the deemed disposal rules that currently deter ordinary savers. Harris confirms the scheme is being finalised alongside the €7 billion spending package and €1.5 billion tax package set out this week in the Summer Economic Statement, ahead of the October 6th budget. McGee draws on Nobel laureate Robert Merton and UK and Swedish models to argue Irish savers hold too much idle cash in low-yield deposits being eroded by inflation. Links: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Acast

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