Latest news with #PatrickGuilbaud
Irish Times
30-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
More than €31bn in fossil fuel investments ‘based in Ireland'
Almost €32 billion in fossil fuel investment was held by Irish-based subsidiaries of finance companies last year, a new report claims. The sheer level of money involved ranks Ireland 14th in global terms and renders the State a 'key global centre for investment'. The research report, The Hidden Truth: Ireland's Role in the Global Fossil Fuel Industry, is published by Trócaire and ActionAid Ireland on Wednesday. The organisations are calling for direct regulation of financial institutions that would require them to adopt and implement transition plans aligned with the Paris Agreement on climate. READ MORE 'Ireland is facilitating the reckless pursuit of profit by financial institutions and corporations, which continue to pursue further expansion of oil and gas in spite of all the warnings and at the expense of the planet,' said Siobhán Curran, Trócaire's head of policy and advocacy. 'The carbon footprint of these financial flows is bigger than Ireland's yearly emissions. This completely undermines efforts that are being taken to reduce emissions and ... means Ireland is playing an outsize role in fuelling the climate crisis.' ExxonMobil, which, according to the report, had €33.6 billion in profits in 2023, is singled out as the top fossil fuel investment held by asset managers based in Ireland. It also claims that, in 2023, such investments generated an estimated 72.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, more than the levels produced nationally. Tax and corporate regulation reforms at EU level are called for given that the regulation of the financial sector 'remains weak and fragmented'. According to the authors, 91 per cent of investments made here were to companies that have plans for fossil fuel expansion. Patrick Guilbaud on bringing fine dining to Ireland, retirement plans, and not getting that third Michelin star Listen | 47:51 'Ireland may not have a domestic fossil fuel industry, but it is clear we are deeply complicit in fuelling the global climate emergency, providing a tax-friendly financial gateway for some of the most destructive industries on the planet,' said Karol Balfe, chief executive of ActionAid Ireland. The report states that, in monetary terms, as of June 2024, Irish-based subsidiaries of investment companies held €31.76 billion in bonds and shares issued by fossil fuel firms. 'Ireland ranks 14th globally in terms of fossil fuel investment by manager location,' it notes. 'Alongside Switzerland, Ireland is one of the only two jurisdictions with such significant fossil fuel investments without having a big fossil fuel industry of its own.' The largest volume of investments via Ireland includes US asset manager BlackRock with €18.9 billion, the report claims. US peer State Street was found to have €4.4 billion, and French banking conglomerate Crédit Agricole €2.1 billion. The report is critical of the State's foreign direct investment policy which it identifies as a contributing factor in cultivating a financial landscape that facilitates capital movement.
Irish Times
29-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Pfizer's Irish staff worry about more job losses as drugmaker announces another €1.5bn in cuts
Irish staff of drug giant Pfizer are waiting to hear whether another round of cost-cutting, announced on Tuesday, will mean more job losses at the group's Irish operations. Pfizer said it will cut another $1.7 billion (€1.5 billion) in costs by the end of 2027. This is the third round of cuts announced by the US pharma group in the last three years and brings to $7.7 billion the amount it hopes to save in annual costs. The company said it expected to make additional savings of $1.2 billion by increased use of automation, artificial intelligence and other digital tools. A further $500 million in savings will come from its research and development budget. The new cuts come as the drugmaker struggles to find sources of growth amid declining demand for its vaccine and treatment for Covid-19. Pfizer is expected to lose more than $15 billion in revenue by the end of the decade as top products lose patent protection. READ MORE A series of multibillion-dollar acquisitions has yet to yield new blockbusters and Pfizer's stable of drugs in development has failed to convince Wall Street, with the company most recently pulling the plug on an experimental pill for obesity. 'Investors are just not excited about the current Pfizer business or the pipeline,' said Mizuho analyst Jared Holz. 'You could argue that nothing that they've done over the past few years has really worked, and to just watch your stock make new multiyear lows, that can't be the endgame here.' The company, which employs some 5,000 people in Ireland, announced last October that it was cutting about 5 per cent of its Irish workforce, with about 210 jobs going across three sites: Grange Castle, West Dublin; Newbridge, Co Kildare; and Ringaskiddy, Co Cork. It also shed 100 staff from its Newbridge site in late 2023 in response to a global collapse in sales of its Paxlovid Covid antiviral medicine. It is unclear whether the latest cost savings plan with its emphasis on automation will mean further job losses in Ireland. Patrick Guilbaud on bringing fine dining to Ireland, retirement plans, and not getting that third Michelin star Listen | 47:51 The announcement came alongside publication of the drugmaker's first quarter results, with revenue of $13.7 billion falling short of analysts' $14 billion average estimate. Adjusted earnings were 92 US cents per share. Pfizer is maintaining its 2025 outlook of between $61 billion and $64 billion and adjusted per-share earnings of $2.80 a share to $3 a share. Chief financial officer David Denton said the company is 'trending towards the upper end' of the per-share earnings guidance range. That wasn't enough to encourage investors initially with Pfizer's shares slipping as much as 2.6 per cent after the markets opened in New York. But sentiment improved as the results were digested with the shares trading up 3.4 per cent in early afternoon trade. Mr Denton told analysts on Tuesday that the company is forecasting $150 million in costs this year from the tariffs implemented to date. He said the sum was factored into the company's sales and earnings outlook for the year. Pfizer, which relies on a global network of manufacturing sites to supply drugs to the US, could be significantly affected by Trump's promised tariffs on pharmaceuticals. Chief executive Albert Bourla has said the company could mitigate part of the impact by moving some overseas production into the US. He said the industry is hoping the Trump administration will focus more on generic medicines like those the World Health Organisation has designated as essential, which tend to be produced mostly in China and India. 'I think that's where the problem is. It's not if an obesity drug is made in Ireland,' he said. Speaking on a conference call with investors, he said the drugmaker's story over the next three years would not be one of strong revenue growth, given looming patent expirations on top products, but rather one of earnings growth. The company's Covid business, which once drove annual revenue to $100 billion, has dramatically faded since the heights of the pandemic. In the first quarter, Covid sales overall dragged on sales. Pfizer's Covid vaccine revenue was $565 million, beating estimates of $325 million. But Paxlovid, the company's pill for Covid, brought in $491 million, far below Wall Street's $902 million forecast. As for other drugs, sales of Eliquis, the company's decade-old blood thinner and one of its top drugs, were $1.92 billion, roughly in line with estimates. The pneumonia vaccine Prevnar added $1.66 billion, meeting analysts' average view. Sales of the heart drug Vyndaqel were $1.49 billion on the quarter, beating estimates of $1.38 billion despite mounting competition from BridgeBio Pharma and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. – Additional reporting: Bloomberg
Irish Times
28-04-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Three little letters that could help transform the Irish economy: PhD
There's a common misconception that all doctors wear white coats, carry stethoscopes, and have terrible handwriting. I'll admit to at least two of the three. But as someone who trained and practised as a medical doctor, I want to talk about a different kind of doctor: the PhD. A quiet but important transformation is already under way. Census 2022 showed more than 38,000 people in the Republic held a doctoral degree, up 74 per cent since 2011. In 2022, PhD enrolments increased by 5 per cent compared to the previous academic year, and 26 per cent since 2016. These numbers tell a story of progress, but they also hint at an untapped opportunity. We need to build a culture in this State that sees the pursuit of a PhD not as a curiosity or a niche calling, but as a viable path for individuals and our national economy. READ MORE Too often, PhD students are imagined as solitary figures in lab coats, fiddling with beakers or analysing arcane data, locked away for years at university, while their peers begin to climb the corporate ladder. The reality is far more exciting. Today's PhD graduates are fuelling the stburgeoning innovation ecosystem. They are solving real-world problems in industry, public policy, climate, and health. Unlocking a vast array of opportunities in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence. They are exactly the kind of minds we need to compete globally. In a time of geopolitical uncertainty and economic upheaval, with US tariffs looming and their retreat from international scientific leadership, the State stands at a crossroads. As America turns inward, we have an opportunity to turn outward, to become a global hub for ideas. And ideas, as the economist Daniel Susskind puts it in his recent book, Growth: A Reckoning , are what power modern economies. They can be reused and built upon without running out. It's these endlessly reusable ideas that have driven human progress and economic growth, and they come not from thin air, but from research, education, and, yes, from PhDs. PhDs are the machines that generate ideas. Patrick Guilbaud on bringing fine dining to Ireland, retirement plans, and not getting that third Michelin star Listen | 47:51 But these ideas don't live in academic journals or university libraries alone. PhD researchers increasingly bring their skills into the heart of industry, working in R&D departments of leading companies, driving innovation, product development, and long-term strategic thinking. More than half of full-time researchers in the EU now work in the business sector. Companies understand the value of this work. Take Apple, which spends more on research and development (R&D) in a year than the entire United Kingdom government. That's a recognition that investing in knowledge, creativity, and experimentation pays dividends in future products, competitiveness, and growth. The International Monetary Fund 2024 Fiscal Monitor states that increasing R&D support by 0.5 percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP) annually, or about 50 per cent more than the current level in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development economies, could raise GDP by up to 2 per cent, and reduce a country's debt-to-GDP ratio for an average advanced economy over the following eight years. That is a powerful return on investment, and one that starts with people. When we support PhDs, we're laying the groundwork for a more innovative, resilient Irish economy. However, we are entering a more fragmented global economy, with rising protectionism, trade tensions, and tariffs. History shows that these kinds of measures often lead to a decline in international competition. When competition drops, so too does the incentive to innovate. That's the danger for the Republic. A fall in global competition could trigger a slowdown in R&D investment here. This could create a ripple effect, dragging down productivity, increasing costs for Irish firms, and weakening the innovation spillovers we benefit from by being plugged into a competitive, globalised economy. The State must go in the opposite direction. We need to double down on investment in knowledge, research, and people. This Government understands what's at stake, it's right there in the programme for government. But in a time of growing economic uncertainty, we need to seize the initiative. Now is the moment to accelerate the delivery of these commitments. We must ramp up science, technology, engineering, and mathematics participation across further and higher education, provide greater support for PhD and early-career researchers, and build stronger links between academia and industry. That means formalising postdoctoral pathways, expanding graduate research funding, and sustaining growth through real collaboration. We should also deepen EU research and innovation partnerships, especially for SMEs, because innovation shouldn't just happen in labs; it should power our entire economy. This is how we transform our economy. And while the benefits to the economy are compelling, we shouldn't overlook the personal upside. PhD graduates enjoy a significant earnings premium, higher employment rates, and a diversity of career options. A recent Higher Education Authority analysis shows that doctoral graduates in the Republic enter the labour market successfully and maintain higher earnings for at least a decade post-graduation. Their skills are in demand both at home and abroad. Roughly a third of Irish PhD graduates are working overseas seven years after graduation. While that might sound like brain drain, it's actually soft power. These graduates carry Irish research, values, and influence into global institutions. And when they return, as many do, they enrich our research ecosystem with international experience, ideas, and networks. It's time we recognised the true value of a doctorate. Not just as a title, but as a tool for building 's future. Martin Daly is a Fianna Fáil TD for the Roscommon–Galway constituency
Irish Times
23-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Patrick Guilbaud on bringing fine dining to Ireland, retirement plans, and not getting that third Michelin star
This week's episode features Patrick Guilbaud , the French chef who brought fine dining to Ireland 44 years ago. Situated beside the Merrion Hotel in central Dublin, Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud continues to thrive with two Michelin stars. Guilbaud moved to Ireland in the early 1980s when the country was in recession, and it wasn't always plain sailing. A visit from the sheriff for unpaid debts led to a partnership with successful businessmen Lochlann Quinn and Martin Naughton that helped put the restaurant on a sound financial footing. It also led him to relocate the restaurant to the Merrion Hotel site which was developed by Quinn and Naughton. A move that he considers to be the making of the business. In February Guilbaud received the Distinguished Leader in Business award at the Irish Times Business Awards. READ MORE In this interview with host Ciarán Hancock he discusses those difficult early days of trading, changes in the Irish restaurant trade over the past four decades, the current challenges facing the sector in terms of cost, and his plans for retirement. Produced by John Casey with JJ Vernon on sound.
