EI's new CEO must think big to help domestic businesses scale to create next ‘Kerry Group or Smurfit'
It's all change at
Enterprise Ireland
. On Friday, it appointed
Jenny Melia
as its chief executive
and one of her key tasks will be to implement its new five-year strategy, which has just been put into effect.
A lot has changed since EI's last three-year plan, not least the return to the White House of
Donald Trump
and his threat to impose
tariffs
and other measures on the rest of the world.
Suddenly, our pharma exports and the financial spin off they yield, are under major threat, along with billions in corporate tax revenues from
Big Tech
firms, which fund many of our essential day-to-day services.
On Wednesday, EI chairman
Michael Carey
and interim CEO Kevin Sherry gave a presentation on the new strategy in Tokyo to 100-plus Irish business leaders who had travelled to the country as part of the
EY
Entrepreneur of the Year programme's CEO retreat.
READ MORE
'It has an underlying ambition to ensure that indigenous Irish businesses, Irish exporting companies and international trading companies... that those businesses become the primary driving force of the Irish economy to provide a counterbalance for the great success of FDI [foreign direct investment] and the great work that the
IDA
do,' Carey said.
Scaling is a potential 'game changer', he said, adding that the ambition is to establish a large fund (a mix of State resources and private sector money) that would allow it write larger cheques for companies with the ambition to become 'the next Kerry Group or Smurfit'.
That step change in funding is a big gap in the system at the moment.
EI's ambition is to seed the next generation of Irish multinationals.
According to Carey, EI is the largest private equity investor in Europe, a fact previously unknown to Cantillon. Now is the time to build on that expertise.
As an entrepreneur himself, Carey should be well placed to help EI deliver on its new strategy. When appointed in 2023, he was the first EI chairman to have been a client of the agency, and his biscuit manufacturer
East Coast Bakehouse
is itself trying to scale into markets outside Ireland.
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Irish Times
37 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Doctors say they warned CHI of toxic behaviour by several senior medics
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Irish Times
39 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Do we need more CCTV cameras for safer streets? A politician and a civil liberties campaigner debate
Olga Cronin: No. Reducing crime is much more complex than simply flooding cities with CCTV Flooding our streets with CCTV is a bad idea. And fortunately, it would also be unlawful, for now. CCTV has legitimate purposes, such as securing premises and assisting gardaí to investigate crimes and uphold the rights of victims of crime. An Garda Síochána has the power to install CCTV in public spaces for preventing, investigating, detecting or prosecuting criminal offences, and local authorities can also have CCTV installed to assist gardaí with those same purposes. However, when CCTV is deployed in a manner that is neither necessary nor proportionate, it raises legitimate concerns of unreasonable and unlawful intrusion into our data protection and privacy rights. It can also lead to excessive monitoring of people's movements. This approach to crime prevention has been the norm for over a decade in the UK . The Home Office's biometrics and surveillance commissioner described the country as an 'omni-surveillance' society' . Such surveillance, real or perceived, risks undermining our fundamental freedoms as it can deter people from freely expressing themselves or participating in public life. READ MORE This is why An Garda Síochána cannot simply erect cameras without justification. Our laws require that gardaí justify the use of a CCTV system as necessary to achieve their given purposes and proportionate in its impact upon those who will be recorded before any deployment. There are other requirements too. [ Just over 200 Garda CCTV cameras in operation in Dublin Opens in new window ] The laws in place to protect our data protection and privacy rights are not minor, nor are they purely technical or administrative limitations. They stem from the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and reflect the core principle of human dignity that underpins the entire EU legal framework. This is why we must carefully guard them. But, of course, their effectiveness depends entirely on how rigorously they are enforced. When oversight fails, the consequences can be devastating. Irish activist and journalist Dara Quigley died tragically in 2017 after a garda at Pearse Street Garda station recorded, on their mobile phone, CCTV footage of her walking naked in Dublin city before being forcibly detained by gardaí under the Mental Health Act . The garda recorded the footage from a monitor at the station and shared it with another person before it was uploaded to social media. Dara knew of the footage before she died. Over a year after Dara Quigley's death, the Data Protection Commission (DPC) found that there was excessive access to the CCTV monitoring room in Pearse Street where all Garda members had access to the station's then 34 live-feed cameras. In 2019, the DPC found that gardaí in Duleek and Donore, in Co Meath, routinely failed to manually return their 'pan, tilt and zoom' CCTV cameras to their original focus. Some cameras were left directed at private homes in Duleek, while one camera in Donore was fixed on the front door of a priest's home, resulting in his home activities, and those of his visitors, being permanently on view at Ashbourne Garda station . Olga Cronin, Irish Council for Civil Liberties It was deeply troubling therefore, but not surprising, when it emerged three years later, in 2022, that issues concerning CCTV persisted in An Garda Síochána, with an internal data protection audit identifying the handling of CCTV footage as an area of high risk . We must also consider whether CCTV is actually effective in reducing crime, since the necessity and proportionality of any technological tool depends on its effectiveness. In the Republic, the research on CCTV and crime prevention is mixed. 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It also demands commitment to fostering a sense of pride in our localities, supporting people on the margins of our society and ensuring our young people have opportunities, facilities and support to thrive. True community safety comes not from surveillance, but from solidarity and the vindication of our socio-economic rights. Olga Cronin is surveillance and human rights senior policy officer at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties James Geoghegan: Garda presence alone isn't enough. We need more CCTV to help make Dublin safer Only one in three Dubliners say they feel safe in the capital city at night. That is according to a recent survey from Dublin City Council, and it matches what I hear on the ground. The organisation Dublin Town has reported similar findings. It's not hard to understand why. There are parts of the city that feel unsafe, especially after dark. That is a reality we need to face and change. Dubliners want more gardaí on the streets. People don't want vague reassurances, they want visible policing. James Geoghegan TD That work is now under way. This spring, 66 newly qualified gardaí were deployed to the Dublin Metropolitan Region to support high-visibility patrols in key areas like O'Connell Street and Henry Street. This targeted approach, based on community concerns and crime data, is starting to make a difference. But Garda presence alone isn't enough. Gardaí can't be everywhere at once, and we shouldn't expect them to be. We need to support them with the right tools. That is why I believe we need to invest in our CCTV network: more cameras in key areas, better system integration, and quicker access to footage for gardaí investigating crimes. [ The Irish Times view on CCTV in Dublin: Light camera action Opens in new window ] At the moment, there are just 209 Garda-operated CCTV cameras in all of Dublin, or one for every 6,000 people. By comparison, the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London has one for every 73 residents. Westminster has one for every 1,000 and is planning to expand that coverage. Gardaí can also access footage from about 400 Dublin City Council cameras and, in some cases, private systems. But the process is too often slow and bureaucratic. Officers shouldn't be left waiting for paperwork while crucial evidence is lost. To be clear, I'm not suggesting we mirror London's scale. But we do need more cameras in areas where crime and antisocial behaviour are common, and we need to make access to footage more efficient. Some raise civil liberties concerns. The Irish Council for Civil Liberties, for example, has pointed out that gardaí accessed thousands of private cameras after the Dublin riots. That's true, but those riots were an extraordinary event. In more routine cases, such as assaults or vandalism, access is much slower, and victims can be left without timely support. A business group I met recently pointed out this inconsistency. Thanks to new legislation, it is now far easier for authorities to access CCTV footage in cases of illegal dumping. Yet when a business is vandalised in the same area, gardaí often face significant delays trying to get the same kind of footage. That doesn't make sense. I've seen this issue close-up. A constituent had his wallet and glasses stolen in a gym. He reported it immediately. But when he followed up with the Garda, he was told it could take up to two weeks to get the footage. By then, it had already been deleted. The case went nowhere. With proper legal safeguards, giving gardaí faster access to video footage does not pose a serious threat to civil liberties. The evidence supports this too. Studies show CCTV can reduce crime by between 13 per cent and 20 per cent. It is not a silver bullet, and it works best when combined with measures like public realm improvements and strong community policing. But it helps. The Government is rightly pursuing a mix of those approaches. But a modern capital city also needs a modern system for gathering and using video evidence. People expect to feel safe in our capital. It's time we made sure that they can. James Geoghegan is a Fine Gael TD for Dublin Bay South
Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
Job numbers in occupations exposed to AI up 94% in Ireland since 2019
Job numbers in occupations exposed to artificial intelligence (AI) in Ireland have grown 94 per cent since 2019, and the technology is making workers better able to command higher wage premiums, according to a new report from PwC. The group's 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, which is based on analysis of close to a billion job ads globally, has found that productivity growth has nearly quadrupled in industries most exposed to AI since its proliferation in 2022. Growth has risen from 7 per cent from 2018-2022 to 27 per cent from 2018-2024 in industries including financial services and software publishing. By contrast, the rate of productivity growth in industries least exposed to AI declined from 10 per cent to 9 per cent. Data from 2024 shows that the most AI-exposed industries are now seeing three times higher growth in revenue per employee than the least exposed. READ MORE PwC Ireland chief technology officer David Lee said the research shows that the power of AI to deliver for businesses is 'only at the start of the transition'. 'As we roll out agentic AI [making decisions without human intervention] at enterprise scale, we will see how the right combination of technology and culture can create dramatic new opportunities to reimage how organisations work and create value,' he said. [ AI in the office: Trust gap with staff is a big hurdle for companies Opens in new window ] The report found job numbers in AI-exposed occupations in Ireland have grown 94 per cent since 2019, with positive growth in every type of occupation. Augmentation-exposed jobs have seen much higher job growth across almost all sectors than automation-exposed jobs, reflecting demand for workers who are 'enhanced by AI', the report said. In Ireland, the results suggest that AI-exposed occupations are also undergoing transformation, requiring workers to reskill and upskill more frequently. For example, the top quartile of occupations exposed to AI in Ireland have seen a 2.78 times greater change in demanded skills compared with the bottom quartile. The report also found wages are growing twice as fast in industries more exposed to AI versus less exposed, with wages rising in both automatable and augmentable jobs. Jobs that require AI skills also offer a wage premium in every industry analysed, with the average premium hitting 56 per cent, up from 25 per cent last year. Although the picture on productivity, wages and jobs is broadly positive, the research highlighted the need for workers and businesses to adapt to a much faster pace of change. The skills sought by employers are changing 66 per cent faster in occupations most exposed to AI, up from 25 per cent last year. PwC Ireland partner Gerard McDonough said 44 per cent of Irish CEOs reported AI had increased efficiencies in their employees' time at work in the past 12 months. [ How AI will really impact your job Opens in new window ] 'However, to reach full potential, close attention needs to be given to skills enhancement,' he said. 'The survey revealed that 73 per cent of Irish business leaders are of the view that AI will require most of their workforce to develop new skills.' He added that AI's rapid advance is not just reshaping industries, but 'fundamentally altering the workforce and the skills required'. 'This is not a situation that employers can easily buy their way out of,' he said. 'Even if they can pay the premium required to attract talent with AI skills, those skills can quickly become out of date without investment in the systems to help the workforce learn.'
