Top Stories

Agriculture department greenlit peat exports despite EPA concern over “illegal” extraction 

The EPA says commercial extraction without licensing or planning permission is “widespread”. It will now follow up with "appropriate authorities" about the department’s approval of phytosanitary certs following The Currency’s findings.

Niall Sargent
10th Nov, 2025 - 5 min read

Diary of an Irishman, featuring Vincent Browne, Dermot Morgan and The General

Frank McNally has been the chief writer of the Irishman’s Diary in The Irish Times for nearly 20 years. In a new memoir, he recalls growing up in Monaghan and why he felt the column should have been retired after Kevin Myers left the paper.
Dion Fanning
8th Nov, 2025 - 7 min read

Retailers fail in bid to cross-examine top health official on tobacco licensing

The Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association is challenging the Minister for Health's new tobacco licence fees, claiming that "exorbitant figures were simply plucked out of the air and are inherently arbitrary”.
Francesca Comyn
7th Nov, 2025 - 4 min read

Another $30m write-off to close Glanbia’s Slimfast chapter

The Kilkenny-headquartered group has completed its exit from its largest-ever acquisition. The exact value lost in this weight-loss adventure may never be fully known.

Thomas Hubert
7th Nov, 2025 - 2 min read
Wind turbine

High Court deems wind turbine quieter than “a washing machine” as judicial review quashed

In a High Court judgement, Justice Richard Humphreys found that low-level noise should not be “the sort of impact that public policy should accept as precluding the grant of permission” in a wind farm case.
Alice Chambers
7th Nov, 2025 - 3 min read

“Picking a fight with average”: How Lisa Clarke built Rowdy Studio

Made redundant during the recession, Lisa Clarke founded her own branding agency in London - and built it into an award-winning studio now expanding into Ireland.

Ian Kehoe
7th Nov, 2025 - 6 min read

M6 deal post-mortem: Valuing and refinancing a motorway

A series of transactions initiated two years ago saw the Galway toll road change owners and debt providers. Who are its new backers, and how much did they invest?
Thomas Hubert
7th Nov, 2025 - 3 min read

Family-owned equipment distributor acquired by Japanese multinational Komatsu

McHale Plant Sales Ltd has been the Irish distributor of Komatsu equipment for 30 years.
Alice Chambers
6th Nov, 2025 - 2 min read

“It was a very combative interview, and it had gone about as badly as I could possibly have imagined it going.”

Dion Fanning
8th Nov, 2025

Frank McNally knew no journalists when he was growing up. It was not a career that seemed feasible to the son of a dairy farmer in Monaghan. He speaks to Dion Fanning about his circuitous route into journalism, tussling with Vincent Browne and his dilemma when he was asked to take over the Irishman’s Diary.

Top Voices

Big pharma is back: Rewinding the week that was

What does Donald Trump’s former commerce secretary Wilbur Ross mean when he says in Dublin that pharmaceutical companies “gradually come around”? The answer, if correct, is reassuring for Ireland.
Thomas Hubert
9th Nov, 2025 - 4 min read

When the referee isn’t in charge: The crisis at rugby’s core

Tadhg Beirne’s rescinded red card wasn’t just a mistake — it was a symptom of a deeper problem. Referees are no longer judging the game; they’re taking instructions from invisible voices.

Brett Igoe
8th Nov, 2025 - 6 min read

Siobhán Brett: For an off-year, it felt awfully on

The elections that weren’t meant to matter suddenly did. From New York to Maine, voters turned routine ballots into a referendum on fatigue, frustration, and what democracy feels like when you can’t quite name what you’re voting for.

Siobhán Brett
8th Nov, 2025 - 5 min read

Ireland is getting an AI Office, but what should its true role be?

The long-mooted AI Office was namechecked in last month’s budget. Now indigenous businesses want to see meat on the bones and understand how it will work in practice.
Jonathan Keane
7th Nov, 2025 - 5 min read

Reflections on The Entrepreneur Experience 2025: From breezy elevator pitches to brutal honesty

It was exhausting but also energising: emerging entrepreneurs laid themselves bare and business veterans supporting them talked about the many ways in which they had screwed up before finding success.

Alan English
6th Nov, 2025 - 4 min read

There’s a bubble in all these fearful musings and public-sector warnings about a tech stock bubble

Predicting the direction of stock markets has arguably never been more challenging. All we can be confident about right now is that there will be a correction – eventually.
John Looby
6th Nov, 2025 - 3 min read

Joe Gill: Aircraft technology is changing how airlines operate

The lines between long- and short-haul, trunk and point-to-point routes are blurring as more efficient jets redefine the economics of each seat – and the rules of competition.
Joe Gill
5th Nov, 2025 - 4 min read

Postcard from Astana: Capacity, not ideology, will shape Ireland’s future

From housing to energy to reunification, Ireland’s challenge is no longer what to believe in, but how to build it. Astana’s story shows that state capacity — not politics — is the true test of national ambition.
Ronan Lyons
4th Nov, 2025 - 7 min read

© 2025 Currency Media Limited

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