Week ahead in business: Trump tariffs, inflation data and Competitiveness Summit
Previous experience of Mr Trump's unilateral imposition of conditions on trading partners indicates he will ratchet up rhetoric and potentially even launch a bruising new round of tariffs once the July 9 deadline hits and only walk that back once the potential financial fallout particularly on America's own borrowing costs, starts to become clear.
The US president has shown a very high tolerance for shocks to the stock markets, by contrast.
Yesterday, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett indicated he believes some trade negotiations will push past Wednesday's deadline but the situation remains fluid and volatile.
Meanwhile, back home, there is inflation data due on Thursday from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Inflation is largely contained but resurgent pressure on the cost of food and groceries is becoming increasingly stark.
Economic data from the CSO also due on Thursday will tell whether gross domestic product growth has moderated on the back of the uncertainty over trade.
National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) is scheduled to publish this year's Ireland's Competitiveness Challenge report tomorrow.
The second annual Competitiveness Summit is scheduled to take place today, hosted by An Taoiseach. In September 2024, the first Competitiveness Summit was attended by a number of ministers, the chair of the NCPC, along with representatives of the OECD, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and the CCPC.
The High Court has extended the examinership of the Workman's Club Ltd in Dublin, to Thursday.
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The Irish Sun
an hour ago
- The Irish Sun
Irish sporting bodies panicked about funding losses if they took part in review on transgender participation
The consultation said views collected were likely to be 'provocative, confronting, and even upsetting' INCLUSION PROJECT Irish sporting bodies panicked about funding losses if they took part in review on transgender participation IRISH sporting bodies panicked about losing funding if they took part in an inclusion review on transgender participation in sport. A report also details how three international athletes had agreed to be interviewed but pulled out at the last minute due to 'unease with the subject matter'. The consultation, which was commissioned by Sport Ireland on policy around transgender participation, said views collected were likely to be 'provocative, confronting, and even upsetting'. It said that hundreds of interviews had led to some 'uncomfortable truths' and personal testimonies that showed the 'depth of feeling' about catering for everybody in sports across Ireland. The project report, which was prepared by Carbmill Consulting in July 2023, said that the single biggest issue raised was the inclusion of transgender women in sport. It revealed: 'Individuals involved in boxing and the martial arts were adamant that allowing transgender women to compete against females in their sports was unsafe, possibly unlawful.' More than one interviewee said watching a trans woman competing in MMA was 'akin to watching footage of violence against women'. There were multiple sports where sporting bodies felt there was little issue including touch rugby, rounders, and equestrianism. And some said making games more inclusive would lead to higher participation. But others said the opposite, including members of Ireland's Islamic community. The report said: 'The parent of one of the [football] players concerned explained her daughter and her friend had been put in a position where they had no choice but to withdraw.' Overall, there was general support for inclusion of the transgender community at 'grassroots level' of sport but that it was seemingly 'unworkable at the elite level'. SAFEGUARDING The topic of changing rooms was repeatedly raised, according to the authors. It said that many of the female respondents had not raised any issues around 'safeguarding' but instead 'privacy and dignity for women and girls'. Hundreds of coaches were also contacted as part of the consultation with the report saying some claimed it could be 'the beginning of the end for female sport'. A number of national governing bodies expressed fears they would lose funding if they did not conform to any future Sport Ireland policy on transgender inclusion.
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Can Trump explain away Epstein scandal to MAGA supporters
Donald Trump has called the Epstein scandal 'bullshit', he called believers 'idiots' and 'selfish people" and urged supporters to forget about his former friend, but unlike many other scandals involving the US president, it just won't go away. Mr Trump's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal has been the administration's biggest political problem to date. The conspiracy theory around the disgraced financier and sexual predator, that the US President helped fuel, seemingly has turned around to bite him. Many loyal Trump followers believe Epstein kept a list of hugely powerful people who had engaged in sex with women and underage girls that he trafficked. The conspiracy suggests Epstein didn't take his own life but rather that these powerful people on the list had him killed before he could out them. Believers have been calling for the release of this list for years, and when US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February that the list was sitting on her desk, conspiracists broke into a fever. But when Trump's Department of Justice announced last month that the list didn't exist, many lost faith. There has been fierce criticism of Donald Trump, from some of his most fervent supporters for the first time, from QAnon influencers to conservative podcast hosts. QAnon is a widely followed conspiracy theory purporting that a mysterious government insider called Q is leaking secrets to help Mr Trump battle the deep state and a cabal of powerful paedophiles including the likes of Hillary Clinton. But the narrative that all the conspiracists have turned against their supposed saviour, isn't quite as clear cut as it has been made out. Ciarán O'Connor, who researches conspiracy theories for think tank ISD Global said the belief in conspiracy theories is very hard to break. 'Conspiracy theories are elastic' "Conspiracy theories are elastic, they're self-sealing and they're quite often impossible to disprove," he said. "Especially to a base that is radicalised and so supportive and has been fed a diet of conspiracy fantasy plots over time by someone like President Trump". But, Will Sommer, journalist with The Bullwark and author of 'Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America' says this feels different. He says: "All of these other Trump scandals like, taking this plane from Qatar, things like that, they've sort of immunised the audience to not care about these ethical conflicts, but the difference being that with Epstein. "I mean they, the right-wing media figures, people like Cash Patel, who's now in the administration. "They all said like this is really, really, important. You should care a lot about this and then suddenly, Trump says: 'Shut up. Stop asking about it. You're you're an idiot if you believe this.' "And so there has been this whiplash." Mr O'Connor also sees the beginnings of a significant fracture. "President Trump created a lot of MAGA content creators, and the promise to find out the truth about Epstein as their raison d'être," he says. "So Epstein and allegations around him and trying to prove them kind of became a purity test for the MAGA base." Some blips in conspiracies like the promise to arrest Hillary Clinton, that didn't happen can be explained away as part of a longer-term plan, but the Epstein list is so central to the whole conspiracy world, that it can't be just batted away. "Donald Trump has tried distraction in recent weeks, by bringing up the Russia Hoax and suggesting that Obama could be arrested by posting a fake AI video of the former president being hauled off in cuffs from the Oval Office, but people have seen through the tactic and become even more enraged," says Mr O'Connor. Much ire has been directed towards Kash Patel, director of the FBI and Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, both of whom made their name as conspiracy theory peddlers whose central theme was the need to expose the Epstein list. But now that they're in government they're towing the same line as previous administrations whom they labelled as the deep state that Donald Trump is supposedly battling. Loyal followers like podcaster Andrew Shulz are turning against Mr Trump. On his hugely successful show 'Flagrant' this week he said: "He put Bongino and Kash in there, which might be the stupidest thing in the history of the world. "Why would you put the two guys that have non-stop pounded the pavement talking about how we're going to expose this Epstein thing, and the second they get in there like: 'You better shut the f*ck up." 'A line in the sand' Even podcasting powerhouse Joe Rogan has called the Epstein issue 'a line in the sand'. It seems the best media manipulator in all of politics fundamentally misreading the media landscape before him. Mr Sommer says it's very unusual for Donald Trump to be so out of step with his base for even 24 hours, and now we've seen a whole month of it. We know from reporting in the Wall Street Journal that Pam Bondi told the president that he's mentioned in the Epstein files, not necessarily in a criminal way, but it certainly could be embarrassing for him. "It seems he's acting in a way that that seems so unlike him but that he's sort of protecting something larger or avoiding a bigger pain," says Sommer. Yet such is the elasticity and strength of belief in the conspiracy that Mr O'Connor doesn't rule it out. "MAGA influencers may well possibly find ways to find a comfortable through line between Trump's rejections that there is anything important in the Epstein client list, to the kind of drip, drip of further calls for investigations where Ghislaine Maxwell may come into it. "Time will tell on that," he adds. One of the explanations that is surfacing among right wing commentators and conspiracy theorists is that maybe Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent, and maybe she could come clean, exonerate Mr Trump and name the real culprits. But Mr Sommer thinks this would be a difficult sell to the MAGA crowd, partly because it has happened so quickly. With other scandals like 6 January, there was time to build a counter narrative and suggest that maybe the rioters were innocent, but this has been so abrupt, there's been no time to rehabilitate Ghislaine Maxwell for example "To convince people that it's OK to pardon this sex offender, like a sex trafficker," he says. "It's not easy. It's the ultimate test of Trump's idea that that he could shoot someone in the middle of the street and get away with it." And ultimately it will be Trump rather than any right-wing influencers that will have to do the convincing. "Unlike anyone else in his administration or the wider MAGA media world, no one can really speak to the MAGA base quite like Trump," say Mr O'Connor. Nobody expects hardcore MAGA supporters to suddenly vote for democrats, but they could become disillusioned and not vote, and independent voters could be swayed. The Epstein files are likely to haunt the US President right up to next year's midterm elections and possibly beyond.
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Ireland in need of wind and solar farms as coal-burning era ends
Ireland's 40-year-long era of burning coal - the dirtiest fossil fuel imaginable - to generate electricity came to an end in June. That was when ESB announced it had ceased burning coal at its Moneypoint power station in Co Clare, six months ahead of schedule. Throughout those 40 years, the coal was transferred on noisy conveyer belts through what must surely have been the longest, ugliest, sequence of brown tunnels in the country. They ran from the jetty at Moneypoint where the coal ships pulled up, to a huge coal storage yard, and then right into the powerplant and furnaces for generate electricity. Now those conveyer belts have stopped, there's no coal in the yard, the highly credible transformation of Moneypoint into a green energy hub is well underway, and the post-coal era in Ireland has begun. July was the first month, after 40 years that coal has not featured in Ireland's electricity fuel mix. Official figures for the month from Eirgrid show renewable energy is quickly filling the gap left by coal. New milestones were passed last month for the contribution of solar power to Ireland's energy mix. A new record of 798 megawatts of electricity from grid-connected solar farms in Ireland was set. That is four percent more solar power than ever before, indicating that a solar power revolution in Ireland is continuing at pace. Ireland now has over 1.6 gigawatts of solar PV capacity installed. It is the fastest growing renewable electricity source in the country. A new report from the Government Taskforce on Accelerating Renewable Electricity, published this week, said solar power is highly complementary to wind generation, provides a more stable and balanced energy supply over time, and is rapidly transforming Ireland's energy system. The official figures show that close to six percent of all the electricity used in Ireland in July this year was supplied directly from the sun. The fact that so much power from the sun can be harnessed in the Irish climate through photovoltaic panels that have no moving parts, require virtually no maintenance, and are cheap and quick to install is nothing short of a miracle to someone like me who grew up in the age of coal. Imagine that. Six percent of all our electricity from the sun! And we are only at the beginning of this solar revolution. It is mind-blowing really, if we are honest. It shows that the technology required to transform our energy system and make our lives cleaner and better is already here. We just need to enable it, speed it up, and embrace the system transformations required. Unfortunately, however, that is where Ireland appears to be falling behind. We are far too slow at letting it happen. Wind Energy Ireland expressed huge frustration over this same issue this week - the blockage and slow pace of technological enablement and decision making in Ireland. Eirgrid's figures show wind energy supplied 24 percent of electricity last month - a little over four times more than solar power at the height of summer. Ireland reached a major milestone in January this year, with just over five gigawatts of wind generating capacity installed. It was a significant step towards achieving the official target of renewable sources supplying 80 percent of electricity demand by 2030. Currently, taking all 12 months together, wind power alone supplies 35 percent of Ireland's electricity. The official Government target is to have nine gigawatts of wind generating capacity installed by 2030. This is significantly more than the five gigawatts currently in place, so there is no time to waste. More needed from An Coimisiún Pleanála - WEI Wind Energy Ireland (WEI) has been crunching the numbers. They have taken into account the capacity and potential output of wind farms currently under construction, and projects with full planning permission that are likely to be finished and operational by 2030. Their analysis suggests An Coimisiún Pleanála needs to give planning permission for another 4.2 gigawatts of wind farms before the end of next year if the industry is to have any chance of installing the required capacity by 2030. To achieve that, they calculate An Coimisiún Pleanála needs to give approval for 595 megawatts of new wind capacity every three months. That is the pace of approvals it says is needed to achieve the Government's onshore wind target – which, by the way, is the cornerstone of meeting Ireland's legally binding climate obligations. Failure could end up costing the country billions of euros for fines and carbon credits. What is frustrating WEI is that during the last quarter - the three months to the end of June - An Coimisiún Pleanála approved only two new wind farms with a combined capacity of 79 megawatts between them. That is just 13 percent of the volume of approvals needed to keep Ireland on track with its Climate Action Plan. It highlighted also that An Coimisiún rejected planning applications from two wind farms with an estimated combined capacity of 76 megawatts. In addition, another 31 projects totalling 1,643 megawatts were still awaiting decisions at the end of the quarter. WEI's big ask is for extra money from the Government in October's Budget, not to be given to themselves but to be give instead to the planning authorities to speed up decision making. Its Director of External Affairs, Justin Moran, said that at time when Ireland is under threat from tariffs, energy costs and global uncertainty, there is a solution here in Ireland. "Every wind farm through the planning system and connected to the electricity grid, protects Irish electricity consumers and strengthens Irish energy supply," he said. He could very easily have swapped solar farms into that sentence because it is the same story there. Ireland needs more of both - wind farms and solar farms - and it needs them faster, especially now that the post-coal era here has well and truly begun.
