Consumer sentiment in Ireland weakened slightly in August, pointing to “caution rather than gloom” about the economy and ongoing cost-of-living issues, the latest Credit Union sentiment survey indicated. The barometer’s main index fell to 72 in August, down from a July reading of 74.9. The August decline was the first since May and followed significant improvements in both June and July. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.
Mobile internet services, online advertising and video streaming subscriptions will drive “robust” expansion in the Irish entertainment and media industry over the next five years, according to a report by PwC. The Irish entertainment and media industry is set to grow 2.9 per cent annually, the professional services giant forecasts in its latest outlook, which covers the period 2024 to 2028. Laura Slattery has the details.
A Meath-based property developer, Eamonn Duignan, has filed new legal proceedings against former Panda Waste owner Eamon Waters in the latest move in an ongoing dispute between the pair, writes Barry J Whyte. Mr Duignan’s proceedings, which were filed in the High Court this week, are against Mr Waters personally, and against a company called Pillardale Limited.
A planning application for a major offshore wind farm between 13km and 22km off the coast of Co Wicklow is due to be submitted next week. Codling Wind Park aims to begin construction between 2026 and 2027, and to have the infrastructure operational by 2030, subject to receiving permission. Fiona Keeley reports.
Current battery recycling methods are both dirty and energy inefficient, and with the big global push towards electric vehicles in particular this is a problem in urgent need of a solution. Stepping up to solve it is UCD spin-out Licovolt, which has developed a novel patented compound and an associated process that radically reduces the energy required to extract critical and rare earths from black mass – the powder that results from battery recycling. Olive Keogh reports.
When we first got a kitten, there were all sorts of promises made. Who would feed her, who would give her water, who would play with her every day to ensure she was getting enough exercise and stimulation when she was an indoor cat. There were plenty of volunteers for those jobs; they all dropped off though when the least favourite job was mentioned: cleaning out the litter tray. That job, inevitably, fell to the adults in the house, usually me, writes Ciara O’Brien as she reviews the robotic cat litter box Neakasa M1.
Inheritance tax in Ireland: What are the rules, and could they be changed in the budget?
Eighteen months ago I went to a party in San Francisco that was thrown to celebrate generative AI as the next industrial revolution. The mood was cheerfully nihilistic. AI was about to demolish our way of life, said one partygoer. We were like farmers tending to our crops, unaware of the machinery that was on its way to chew us all up. Safe to say, generative AI hasn’t chewed up much of anything yet, argues Elaine Moore. Those early warnings are starting to sound like a weird form of marketing.
Cantillon has noted another flurry of buying by Matthew Warner in the shares of Clontarf Energy, the exploration company founded many years ago by John Teeling, and now run by one of his right-hand men, David Horgan. Warner, a London-based retail trader who seems to have an interest in lithium and a few quid to take a punt, has been buying up shares in the company.
Much of the public conversation about artificial intelligence in education has focused on the perils of plagiarism – students using AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to write convincing essays that they pass off as their own, and academic institutions, in turn, deploying AI tools to try to catch these cheats. But, as new technologies including AI break into the mainstream, they also promise to revolutionise learning for the better, writes Hannah Murphy.
At the elite levels of Premier League and American football, coaching has gone far beyond what is obvious to the eye. Real-time data forms the basis for tactical decisions, but the additional insights fed by quality AI tools is now delivering the predictive levels of information that not only maximise team performance but prolong careers, writes James Coc. At the cutting edge of this sports revolution is Galway-based sports data company Orreco, which counts top Premier League clubs, NBA teams and NFL teams as clients.
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