Waterland eyes €150m of Irish deals despite Trump tariff uncertainty
Irish companies focused on European expansion are now a better investment bet than US-oriented ventures, according to Laura Dillon of Waterland Private Equity, which has emerged as a significant backer of SMEs here since 2019.
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The Irish Sun
10 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
Inside ‘delightful' family home on Irish market for €269k – and it's ‘immaculately presented throughout'
TAKE a look inside the "delightful" family home on the Irish market for €269,000 - and it's "immaculately presented throughout". This stunning pad is located in Ashfield, Co Advertisement 6 The pad is located near Carlow town Credit: Estate Agents Collect 6 And it is now on the Irish market for €269,000 Credit: Estate Agents Collect 6 It comes with a spacious living room Credit: Estate Agents Collect 6 The pad also features a fully-tiled kitchen Credit: Estate Agents Collect This semi-detached It comes fully The house listing reads: "This delightful semi-detached home is located in a quiet cul-de-sac on the southern edge of Carlow town, with full access to all mains services and town amenities. "Constructed in 1999, the residence presents a three-bed-one-bath configuration, with the added bonus of an integrated garage cavity at ground floor level, ripe for immediate conversion." Advertisement READ MORE IN MONEY It includes a substantial modern kitchen with access to the rear garden and is perfect for This stunning kitchen has tiled flooring and is fully fitted with white cabinets, an oven, and a dishwasher. Double-glazed windows located around the kitchen and dining area allow plenty of natural light to enter the house. The family home is in an excellent location, with cafes, Advertisement MOST READ IN MONEY Along with being a short walk from Carlow town centre, Kilkenny and Portlaoise are each within an hour's drive of this fabulous property. The area also includes a choice of primary and secondary schools, perfect for Inside three bed family home on Irish market for €170k on 'generous site,' in 'desirable location' Located in a sought after residential area, the family home is equipped with oil-fired central heating and has a spacious back garden. A major bonus to the pad is that it comes with an integrated garage making it perfect for a conversion. Advertisement What's more, the home features off street parking and a large garden. When entering the home, viewers are greeted by a fabulous hallway with timber flooring and plenty of storage room under the stairs. A This comfortable area is filled with natural light and space, creating a cosy atmosphere. Advertisement There are three bathrooms in this family home and the first of which is fully tiled and includes a wash basin, a bath and a toilet. F irst floor offerings Moving upstairs, there is a spacious and modern landing with carpet flooring. On the property's first floor there are three bedrooms, including a master bedroom with timber flooring, natural light and plenty of storage space. The second bedroom is spacious and features views overlooking the garden, along with wooden flooring and wardrobes, and could fit a king-size bed. Advertisement The home's third bedroom is a modern single room that features plenty of storage space and natural light. The Along with featuring a patio area, it comes with ample space and greenery. The property is listed by Sherry Fitzgerald and on Advertisement 6 The property is a three bedroom pad Credit: Estate Agents Collect 6 It comes with a large rear garden Credit: Estate Agents Collect
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Support, don't star: rethinking the Arts Council's role
Theatremaker Dan Colley asks: Has the Arts Council of Ireland taken on too much 'main character energy'? I would like to propose a gear shift with the appointment of the next Director of the Council. The next Director should reorient the Arts Council into the role of supporting character in the story of the arts. It will take a really adept leader not to try and fix everything that's wrong with the organisation from within, but instead to follow. From the outset I want to acknowledge the many dedicated public servants who work at the Arts Council - people who care deeply about the arts and have served tirelessly through periods of huge change. Not least among them Maureen Kennelly, the outgoing Director of the Arts Council, who enjoys widespread support and respect among the community. Her commitment to artists, particularly during the pandemic, has been felt and appreciated. The Arts Council is the national agency for funding, developing and promoting the arts in Ireland. The money it gets from Government to fulfil that mandate has gone from €75 million in 2019, to €140 million in 2025. An 86.5% increase in six years. It's a credit to the people at the Arts Council, and to the volunteer advocates at the National Campaign for the Arts, that they have helped bring greater public and political understanding of the arts—not just as an economic or reputational asset, but as an essential part of Irish life and a foundation of a healthy society. So why, when the Arts Council has more money than ever before, does it feel harder than ever to make theatre? I'm a theatre maker, and that question brought a group of my peers together last year - trying to make sense of an increasingly precarious sector. Theatre funding has effectively stagnated - rising only 5.8% since 2008 - an increase that's been outstripped by inflation. And yet the Arts Council more than doubled its staff since 2020. While additional capacity at the Arts Council may have been necessary, the lack of parallel investment in their clients has created a gulf between the people who produce art and the agency that manages the funding. No theatre has doubled its staff. No plays have doubled its cast. Over 800 artists signed an open letter calling for emergency investment in the sector which was delivered in December 2024. The feeling was widespread: theatre in Ireland is struggling, not because there's no funding, but because of how it's being distributed. The problem is not about people. It's about systems. The Arts Council is a public body with a wide remit, serving everything from festivals to literature, music, venues, visual art, as well as the more nebulous idea of 'promoting the arts in Ireland'. But its most essential function - getting funding to artists and the people who connect art with the public - is not working. If the Arts Council were truly attuned to the interests of artists, it would see the current delays in funding decisions as an organisational crisis. Radical measures would be considered - like redeploying staff or drastically simplifying processes - to get investment to artists in time. If it were more attuned to artists' interests, the fact that only 15% of eligible theatre applications are funded wouldn't be brushed off as "the competitive context." It would be treated as an emergency. The next Director should make the Arts Council a supporting character - one that enables, rather than directs. If it were aligned with artists' interests', the Council's budget submission to Government would not be built around what it thinks it can get, or what looks tidy on paper, but on the real cost of funding all the applications it has already judged to be worthy. They would base it on the real demand, no matter how big that number is. These are questions I've been asking, along with many others, not out of hostility, but out of necessity. These failures are not moral ones. They are systemic. Systems respond to power and, as it stands, the Arts Council responds most clearly to the pressures it is most exposed to - be they departmental, political, or bureaucratic. The artist's voice is still too faint in that chorus. That's why I've been part of a group that formed the Theatre Artists Assembly - an attempt to give the arts practitioners a unified, democratic voice. Not to shout louder, but to speak more clearly and together about what we need to do our work. I would like to see assemblies like this being integrated into Arts Council decision-making processes. I would like to see artist and practitioner-led groups taking power and responsibility over the decisions that affect them. Yes, even the difficult and unpopular decisions. We have seen in citizens' assemblies how groups of people can come together and, when provided with the facts, expertise, and time to digest them and come to a conclusion, they do so with remarkable civility and clarity. I think this could be an experiment in co-creation of state policy. This could be a way of making institutions work in ways that reflect the interests of its stakeholders. It could be something we so acutely need; a form of democracy that happens between elections. This approach could strengthen and renew the principle of the Arts Council's 'arms-length' from Government. This is the principle, established in the Arts Art, that keeps decisions about what kind of art to produce and who to fund to do it, out of the realm of party politics. This could be a way of affirming that distance from the political system, while establishing community-voice and democratic responsibility. The next Director should make the Arts Council a supporting character - one that enables, rather than directs. They should build models for democratic decision-making - not merely "consultation" but real decision-making power. It will take a deft leader to resist the urge to fix everything from within, and instead recognise that real leadership often means creating space for others to shape the path. In short, they should lead by following.
Agriland
2 hours ago
- Agriland
2025 cattle export numbers approaching 250,000 head
2025 cattle export numbers to date are approaching 250,000 head, according to latest figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). As of Sunday, May 25, a total of 247,000 cattle have been exported, which is an increase of 34,000 head of cattle or 16% on the same time last year. 76% of all cattle exports are calves, accounting for almost 188,000 head of total cattle exports. The table below details cattle exports by type in the first 21 weeks of 2023, 2024 and 2025: 2023 2024 2025 2023/25 2024/25 Calves 178,395 165,836 187,985 +5% +13% Weanlings 13,486 12,926 21,196 +57% +64% Stores 8,984 14,965 14,896 +66% – Adult Cattle 14,018 19,405 23,117 +65% +19% Total 214,883 213,132 247,194 +15% +16% Source: DAFM For the purpose of the table above, calves are classified as all cattle under six-weeks-of-age; weanlings are all cattle from six-weeks-of-age to six-months-of-age; store cattle are all cattle from six-months-of-age to 24-months-of-age; and adult cattle are all cattle from 24-months-of-age upwards. There are 16 main countries to which Irish cattle have been exported to this year. Spain, The Netherlands and Northern Ireland are the three largest market destinations followed by Italy, Poland, and Croatia. The table below details total Irish cattle export numbers by market destination for the first 21 weeks of 2023, 2024 and 2025: Country 2023 2024 2025 2024/25 Spain 50,632 61,612 79,502 +29% The Netherlands 96,905 70,185 75,384 +7% Northern Ireland 20,053 21,188 27,899 +32% Italy 23,393 21,045 24,491 +16% Poland 10,369 10,992 20,296 +85% Croatia – 2,808 2,500 -11% Morocco – 7,322 2,302 -69% Great Britain 1,259 2,705 2,149 -21% Greece 770 1,607 1,989 +24% Algeria – 2,037 1,967 -3% Israel – 3,304 1,855 -44% Romania 1,859 4,691 1,479 -68% Hungary 3,047 2,601 1,117 -57% Portugal 239 – 1,063 – Tunisia 125 407 1,001 +146% Lithuania – – 907 – Other 6,232 628 1,293 +106% Total 214,883 213,132 247,194 +16% Source: DAFM This year has seen a firm trade for cattle with Northern Ireland, with exports of Irish cattle across the border up 31% to just under 28,000 head to date this year. Tighter supplies of cattle for slaughter and further feeding north of the border are some of the key factors understood to be attributing to the stronger export levels here this year. The table below details Irish calf exports by market destination for the first 21 weeks of 2023, 2024, and 2025: Destination 2023 2024 2025 2024/25 The Netherlands 96,624 69,924 74,828 +7% Spain 45,665 55,782 65,701 +18% Poland 10,161 10,867 19,831 +82% Italy 17,760 15,251 15,476 +1% Northern Ireland 4,867 4,472 6,590 +47% Croatia – 2,478 1,970 -21% Romania 1,698 4,655 1,386 -70% Hungary 1,318 2,305 855 -63% Portugal – – 586 – Great Britain 2 1 486 – Lithuania – – 273 – Other 300 101 3 -97% Total 178,395 165,836 187,985 +13% Source: DAFM Market sources have told Agriland there is a growing number of beef-sired calves from the dairy herd being exported in line with calf availability. There is also a growing number of heifer calves being exported with 35,500 exported in the first 18 weeks of this year, up from the 16,300 heifer calves exported in the same time period last year.
