Truck checks at Dublin Port, Johnson’s ‘madman’ approach to Brexit, and Tesco drone deliveries

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

‘The winter of 2020 will be a write-off,’ Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary admitted yesterday. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images
‘The winter of 2020 will be a write-off,’ Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary admitted yesterday. Photograph: Paul Faith/AFP/Getty Images

Up to 460 trucks containing agriculture and food consignments from the UK may need to be checked by State inspectors each day at Dublin Port after the country leaves the EU single market on January 1st. Simon Carswell reports.

Is UK prime minister Boris Johnson adopting the "madman theory" of negotiations in his approach to Brexit? Former Irish ambassador to the EU, Rory Montgomery seems to think so, as he told the Dublin Economics Workshop yesterday, writes Eoin Burke-Kennedy.

The practice of dual pricing - offering better prices to new customers - is more common in the insurance industry than providers have admitted, the Central Bank has found. Joe Brennan reports on the letter sent from the Central Bank to insurance company CEOs on the issue this week.

"The winter of 2020 will be a write-off," Ryanair's Michael O'Leary admitted yesterday, as the airline slashed its annual passenger target by another 10 million. Meanwhile, the DAA chief executive Dalton Philips warned that the Government's anti-virus restrictions were "strangling" the country, as he revealed losses at DAA so far this year are already approaching €150 million.

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Grocery deliveries by drone could be coming your way, if you live in Oranmore in Co Galway at least. Tesco has teamed up with drone delivery company Manna for a trial delivering "small baskets" of goods, beginning late next month. Ciara O'Brien reports.

Norwegian energy group Statkraft has acquired five undeveloped solar farms in the Republic, which the company expects will cost about €150 million to develop, writes Peter Hamilton.

"Back to school tech" has taken on a new meaning in the Covid era, as many students are facing a mixture of school- and college-based sessions alongside online classes in at-home learning. Ciara O'Brien has everything you need to know about choosing laptops, printers, smartphones and headphones for kids and adults alike.

And in her Net Results column this week, Karlin Lillington looks at the role the big technology companies play in American politics, and the impact the platforms may have in the upcoming presidential election.

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Ciara Kenny

Ciara Kenny

Ciara Kenny, founding editor of Irish Times Abroad, a section for Irish-connected people around the world, is Editor of the Irish Times Magazine