Irish business leaders are increasingly convinced that AI agents — autonomous systems capable of analysing information, making decisions and taking action — will reshape the workplace more profoundly than the internet did. Yet despite that conviction, adoption remains stubbornly slow.
In this episode of The Tech Agenda, Ian Kehoe explores the findings of PwC Ireland’s new survey on AI agents, speaking with Robert Byrne, Technology Data & AI Partner at PwC Ireland, and Laoise Mullane, Director and AI Adoption Lead in PwC’s Workforce Advisory practice. Together, they unpack the contradiction at the heart of Agentic AI among Irish businesses: soaring ambition on one side, cautious adoption on the other.
Byrne explains how Irish organisations are starting with back-office productivity gains but have yet to take the bigger leap toward rethinking process and operating model transformation. Mullane highlights the workforce dimension — the trust gaps, the mindset barriers and the cultural unease that arise when technology begins to act rather than simply assist.
The Tech Agenda with Ian Kehoe podcast series is sponsored by PwC.
What is the future for the BBC in a UK which is lurching further rightwards? In this podcast UK political commentator Peter Oborne talks to Dion Fanning about why the BBC is under an existential threat and how it is part of a broader attack on British institutions.
Irish companies are spending more on cybersecurity than ever before — but are they spending it wisely? In this episode of The Tech Agenda, PwC’s Len McAuliffe and Moira Cronin join Ian Kehoe to unpack the findings of PwC’s 2026 Global Digital Trust Insights survey. They explore why Irish firms remain behind their global peers in adopting AI-driven defences and quantum-resistant systems, and what that means for business resilience in a world where threats evolve daily. From boardroom accountability to third-party vulnerabilities, the conversation reveals how regulations like DORA and NIS2 are reshaping the cyber landscape — and why leadership, not technology alone, will determine who stays secure.
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.
Journalist Eimear Ní Bhraonáin is the author of The Dodger: DJ Carey and the Great Betrayal, a book exploring the personality and deception of Kilkenny’s former hurling great. From impromptu requests for €100 during chance encounters to elaborate stories about his fake cancer to tap wealthy victims including Denis O’Brien, she tells Dion Fanning about the traits that led Carey down a a path of fraud, how he targeted his victims — and the dark corners that continue to surround the years before he was caught.
Most people experience sport not in a stadium, but on the sidelines of a local club. From fundraising committees to coaching under-10s, volunteers are the engine of Irish sport. But as Emma Richmond, managing partner of Whitney Moore, explains in this episode of Sports Matters, that passion comes with real responsibility.
Richmond outlines the unseen legal landscape of community sport: safeguarding obligations, data protection rules, trusteeship headaches, and the challenges of running staff with volunteer committees. She also discusses how mergers — like the planned integration of the GAA, LGFA and Camogie Association — will test constitutions and ownership structures across the country.
From finance committees to safeguarding officers, her message is clear: Understanding the legal framework isn’t optional. It’s what keeps clubs safe, solvent, and sustainable.
Waking the Feminists is acknowledged to have changed Irish theatre. Ten years on from the social media response, which became a powerful movement, Sarah Durcan, one of its organisers and co-author of a new book, talks to Dion Fanning about how it was done and why it couldn’t happen today.
What links Josh van der Flier, Kelly Harrington, Tadhg Furlong, and the O'Donovan brothers? Behind the scenes, it's David McHugh – advisor, strategist, and one of Irish sport’s most influential figures.
In this episode of Sports Matters, McHugh sits down with Ian Kehoe to talk through a career that’s taken him from Olympic hopeful to founder of Line Up Sports, and now to a leadership role at global agency Wasserman.
He reflects on building trust with athletes, why he avoids the word “agent,” and how commercial sport has evolved from sentiment to science. McHugh also shares how he identifies talent, the future of women’s sport, and what elite performers are really like when they’re not wearing the jersey. Sports Matters is sponsored by Whitney Moore.
In part two of Belfry, the fight continues. After agreeing on a courtroom settlement for 272 Belfry investors, AIB launches a broader redress scheme. A quarter billion euros is set aside by the bank in compensation. But all is not what it might be. Back in private hands and billions in profits later, hundreds of scorched investors still claim they are being shut out of redress by AIB’s shifting rules, opaque criteria, and an appeals process that rarely lets them be heard.
What do you do when an investment opportunity proves too good to be true? Fight back. Part one of Belfry tells the story of how AIB Bank sold a series of highly leveraged UK property funds, known as the Belfry funds, to thousands of their customers between 2001 and 2006. It follows the experiences of those investors who lost their pensions and life savings, and charts the years-long legal battle they waged to hold AIB to account.
In this episode of Sports Matters, former Dublin footballer Bernard Brogan joins Ian Kehoe to talk about his journey from GAA to entrepreneur — and what sport can teach business about culture, leadership, and performance.
Brogan, a seven-time All-Ireland winner and Footballer of the Year, hasn’t slowed down since hanging up the boots. He co-founded Legacy Communications, a fast-growing PR and marketing agency, and then turned his focus to PepTalk — a workplace culture platform now used by major engineering and construction firms across Europe and the US.
He talks candidly about raising venture capital, sleepless nights as a founder, and how lessons from his time under Jim Gavin and Pat Gilroy shape how he leads today.
Sports Matters is sponsored by the law firm Whitney Moore.
