{"id":197888,"date":"2025-12-18T07:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/197888\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T07:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T07:06:07","slug":"ireland-at-risk-if-ai-bubble-bursts-says-esri-and-mixed-fortunes-for-high-profile-irish-brands-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/197888\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland at risk if AI bubble bursts, says ESRI and mixed fortunes for high profile Irish brands \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If the US AI bubble bursts, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/economy\/2025\/12\/18\/ireland-would-suffer-most-from-ai-bust-given-key-players-investment-in-ireland-esri-warns\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/economy\/2025\/12\/18\/ireland-would-suffer-most-from-ai-bust-given-key-players-investment-in-ireland-esri-warns\/\">Ireland stands to suffer<\/a> more than most, the ESRI says, given the presence of some any of the big players in this State. In its quarterly economic commentary, out this morning, it also cautions that housing completions next year are again likely to come in below Government targets. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The company behind the popular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/18\/fallon-byrne-reduces-losses-and-now-in-good-place-from-which-to-grow\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/18\/fallon-byrne-reduces-losses-and-now-in-good-place-from-which-to-grow\/\">Fallon &amp; Byrne restaurant<\/a> in Dublin city centre saw losses fall in 2024 as it reported 7 per cent growth in revenues, according to new filings at Companies Office, writes Ciar\u00e1n Hancock, with the owners stating that it is now \u201cself-sustaining\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sticking with high profile Irish brands, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/kilkenny-design-fined-600-for-consumer-law-breaches-at-landmark-dublin-store\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/kilkenny-design-fined-600-for-consumer-law-breaches-at-landmark-dublin-store\/\">Kilkenny Design<\/a> has found itself in trouble with the consumer protection watchdog, the CCPC, as it was fined \u20ac600 over failures to display prices at its landmark Nassau Street store in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Also in retail, the owners of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/owners-of-st-stephens-green-shopping-centre-make-new-redevelopment-bid\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/owners-of-st-stephens-green-shopping-centre-make-new-redevelopment-bid\/\">Stephen\u2019s Green Shopping Centre<\/a>, who saw a \u20ac100 million revamp plan rejected by An Coimisi\u00fan Plean\u00e1la five months ago, are making a renewed bid to redevelop the landmark shopping centre. Gordon Deegan writes that DTDL Ltd has given notice that it is to lodge plans for an eight-storey building in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/house-price-inflation-at-73-in-october-as-demand-outstrips-supply\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/house-price-inflation-at-73-in-october-as-demand-outstrips-supply\/\">House price inflation<\/a> eased to 7.3 per cent year-on-year in October, down from 7.5 per cent in September, according to the CSO, with the rate outside Dublin at 8.9 per cent well in advance of the 5.4 per cent growth in the capital. Eoin Burke-Kennedy examines the figures. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Meanwhile, figures from the Central Bank show that 23,779 family homes are still more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/irish-mortgage-arrears-fall-again-to-lowest-level-since-2009\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/irish-mortgage-arrears-fall-again-to-lowest-level-since-2009\/\">three months in arrears<\/a> on their mortgages. That, writes Ian Curran, is a post-crash low. Just 3.4 per cent of all principal home mortgage accounts are now in arrears, down from almost 13 per cent after the crash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">With a blizzard of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/your-money\/2025\/12\/18\/text-message-scams-by-far-the-most-common-route-for-online-fraudsters-aib-says\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/your-money\/2025\/12\/18\/text-message-scams-by-far-the-most-common-route-for-online-fraudsters-aib-says\/\">scam calls from UK numbers<\/a> in recent weeks, AIB has produced some research which has found that the most common scams leading to money being stolen from people this year started with text messages sent to phones. Conor Pope reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Speaking of losses, restructuring specialists Azets Ireland have published their latest update on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/18\/small-company-rescue-applications-down-23-in-2025-but-headwinds-loom-in-2026\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/18\/small-company-rescue-applications-down-23-in-2025-but-headwinds-loom-in-2026\/\">Small Companies Administrative Rescue Process<\/a> (Scarp), showing that demand for the service was down almost a quarter this year. But financial headwinds loom, Azets tell Ian Curran. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Looking at debt on a much larger scale, Joe Brennan reports that the National Asset Management Agency (Nama) has now handed over a higher-than-expected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/namas-state-contribution-reaches-56bn-as-winddown-almost-complete\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/2025\/12\/17\/namas-state-contribution-reaches-56bn-as-winddown-almost-complete\/\">\u20ac5.6 billion of cash and assets<\/a> to the State in advance of its expected closure in the new year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If tech features among the gifts under your tree this year, Ciara O\u2019Brien has some tips on planning ahead to ensure you avoid a frustrating Christmas morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In her tech review, she takes a look at Dublin-based <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/technology\/consumer-tech\/review\/2025\/12\/18\/onesonic-studio-pro-review-winning-combination-with-a-focus-on-good-audio\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/technology\/consumer-tech\/review\/2025\/12\/18\/onesonic-studio-pro-review-winning-combination-with-a-focus-on-good-audio\/\">OneSonic\u2019s Studio Pro headphones<\/a>. In a world where gadgets must be feature heavy, multifunctional and connected, these, she says, just concentrate on good audio.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Emmet Ryan harks back to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/innovation\/2025\/12\/18\/what-the-venetian-empire-tells-us-about-innovation-today\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/innovation\/2025\/12\/18\/what-the-venetian-empire-tells-us-about-innovation-today\/\">rise and fall of Venice<\/a> as a hub of innovation and trade in Net Results as he considers the fate of iRobot, the company behind the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, which this week filed for bankruptcy protection having slumped from a peak valuation of \u20ac3 billion in 2021 to just \u20ac120 million. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">And Olive Keogh talks to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/innovation\/2025\/12\/17\/from-ty-project-to-200000-turnover-how-a-dublin-teenager-built-a-global-haircare-brand\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/business\/innovation\/2025\/12\/17\/from-ty-project-to-200000-turnover-how-a-dublin-teenager-built-a-global-haircare-brand\/\">Gavin Hefferon<\/a> who has built a hairstyle products business on the back of what started as a Transition Year project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"> Finally, Ireland\u2019s budgetary watchdog, Ifac, told an Oireachtas committee this week that the Government intends to save just 15 per cent of the projected \u20ac34 billion of corporation tax receipts for next year \u2013 half the level of this year. Ifac chairman Seamus Coffey joins host Ciaran Hancock on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/podcasts\/inside-business\/could-the-decision-to-spend-most-of-next-years-corporation-tax-come-back-to-bite-the-government\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/podcasts\/inside-business\/could-the-decision-to-spend-most-of-next-years-corporation-tax-come-back-to-bite-the-government\/\">Inside Business<\/a> to discuss his concerns on how the Government is spending our corporation tax windfall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">If you\u2019d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to <a href=\"https:\/\/theirishtimes.lt.emlnk1.com\/Prod\/link-tracker?redirectUrl=aHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuaXJpc2h0aW1lcy5jb20lMkZuZXdzbGV0dGVycyUzRnV0bV9zb3VyY2UlM0ROZXdzbGV0dGVyJTI2dXRtX21lZGl1bSUzRGVtYWlsJTI2dXRtX2NvbnRlbnQlM0RSU1MlMjUzQUlURU0lMjUzQVRJVExFJTI2dXRtX2NhbXBhaWduJTNEYnVzaW5lc3NfdG9kYXlfZGlnZXN0&amp;sig=4kSj6MVtJhDySXD8zno7jMoXwZGc1dpLM3xhR9Fc9b5k&amp;iat=1673852841&amp;a=%7C%7C89275494%7C%7C&amp;account=theirishtimes%2Eactivehosted%2Ecom&amp;email=Dc0R66saiYNu2sbROXCOD2QOP8ZXmRzMvz3Yw%2BcA7gI%3D&amp;s=0d5371d23ecde798f8f0f88cc635413b&amp;i=21237A21683A12A963031\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">On the Money<\/a>, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If the US AI bubble bursts, Ireland stands to suffer more than most, the ESRI says, given the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8319,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-197888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-business-today","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}