2025 in quotes
“My remit was always to lend. During the difficult period, it was like shooting fish in a barrel because not everybody was lending at the time and there was a really great opportunity. There were still really good businesses that needed to borrow.”
Avant Money chief executive Niall Corbett as he pressed ahead with plans to turn the nonbank lender into a full Irish bank branch of its Spanish parent Bankinter.
“Fashion made statements then. Now, it is just dictated by a couple of brands mostly in Italy and France and we follow on their coat tails, so it is an uneven field – to get recognised you either have to be 18 or a millionaire. Being a boring middle-class father of seven is not the most exciting prospect, which I am happy with, but maybe pride drives me on.”
The late Irish fashion designer Paul Costelloe, in an interview with The Irish Times in January, recalls Katherine Hamnett’s famous anti-nuclear T-shirt worn to 10 Downing Street to meet Margaret Thatcher.
“We worked out that there could be between five and seven different agencies involved in a data centre. You get over one hurdle, you have to deal with another. You get over this hurdle, you have to go to the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency]. You go to EPA, you can’t get a gas connection. That makes it difficult when you have other advanced jurisdictions, including the Netherlands, which has a department of digital infrastructure, or the UK, who are going to treat data as critical infrastructure.”
In February, Garry Connolly of industry lobby group Digital Infrastructure Ireland said negativity here around data centres has resulted in multinationals bypassing the State for investment.
“When you’re young you’ve nothing to lose. Ignorance is a great thing.”
Padraic Rhatigan, who opened the Radisson Red hotel on the outskirts of Galway as one part of a major residential and commercial development, reflected in February on taking over the family business while still in his teens.
“Thanks, guys.”
Tesla chief executive Elon Musk to shareholders after they voted to approve his $1 trillion (€856 billion) compensation plan in November, awarding the world’s richest person what would be the largest corporate payout in history if he meets the goals necessary to receive it.
John Collison, cofounder of Stripe
“Two hundred and twenty eight homes were blocked in Killarney because they would interrupt the commute of a roost of horseshoe bats. Who signed up for this?”
In October, Stripe cofounder John Collison looked at how the State can get out of the government-by-agency corner into which it has painted itself.
“Within 15 to 25 years, I think it will be mandated that there will be autonomous vehicles. People will not be allowed to drive anything. Public transport systems in the future will become much more efficient. Buses will know what and where the demand is and will organise themselves accordingly.”
Also in October, businessman Dermot Desmond called on the Government to scrap the long-awaited MetroLink project and instead plan for wide-scale autonomously-driven bus services.
“Looking back, juggling these jobs and being a single parent with teenage kids, I genuinely don’t know how I did it. But I wanted to do it – to be a role model to my girls. Equally, having left school with only a few O-levels, I wanted to add something else to my CV.”
BMW Ireland boss Helen Westby in February on working her way through various roles in BMW, looking after her daughters, and completing an MBA.
Samantha Humphreys, MSD Ireland. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
“It’s almost becoming a sort of a two-tier [health service] where you hear clinicians and oncologists certainly talking about it, that they can prescribe a certain medicine to these patients, but the other patients can’t have it.”
In an interview with The Irish Times, Samantha Humphreys, who leads pharma group MSD’s Irish business, spoke on how private health insurers have taken to approving payment for certain drugs that have been approved by the European Medicines Agency but are still working their way through the Irish system.
“They’re going to hire some pudding whose particular talent will be not upsetting Fingal County Council or the morons in the Department of Transport.”
Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary last month expressed faux confidence in airport operator DAA’s recruitment processes after a rift emerged between the board of the State company and its chief executive Kenny Jacobs. At the time of O’Leary’s quote, the two sides had agreed a settlement that would have seen Jacobs leave the business.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary. Photograph: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
“I guess a potential Fed chair is here too. I don’t know. Are we allowed to say that? Potential? He’s a respected person – that I can tell you. Thank you, Kevin.”
US president Donald Trump keeps nobody guessing as to who he intends to appoint chairman of the Federal Reserve early next year as he introduces top White House economic official Kevin Hassett at an event.
“It would be wrong not to confront the fact that we absolutely need gas for this transition. The overseas investors on which our economy depends will move in two or three years without reassurance that energy supplies here are secure.”
Bord Gáis Energy chief executive Dave Kirwan last month made the argument that gas remains vital to the State, arguing that it will play a central role in aiding us to end fossil-fuel dependence.
“We all know it’s only going one way, the demographics are going to double for over-65s in the next 10 years, over-85s as well. So, there’s a huge demand presently not to think about the future.”
In April, Shane Jennings, the former rugby player and now chief executive of Dovida, Ireland’s largest homecare group, gave his take on the State’s preparations for dealing with an ageing population.
“He was a nice fellah. He would go to the local pub for a pint in the evening and play some pool with the lads. I got to play a game with him in Fitzgerald’s of Avoca. He was good.”
In October, Tesco Ireland boss Geoff Byrne recounted losing a game of pool to actor Colin Farrell while he was shooting the Ballykissangel drama series in Co Wicklow.
“I had lunch with 14 European CEOs [at Davos] and the pessimism, you could cut it with a knife. It was so palpable – and it just was so obvious to me that the pessimism was overdone. But the pessimism was loud enough that I think finally the Europeans were waking up and saying, ‘we got to change’.”
In April, Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said European leaders should lighten up about the outlook for the continent despite a decade and a half of low growth and a perception that business is being over-regulated.
“It was hugely special. It couldn’t get any more special than under the lights in Croke Park. It was the first round of the league against the Dubs. To beat them and get front page of many newspapers … it couldn’t have started any better. It was downhill after that. We didn’t do a whole lot of winning.”
Ciaran Marron of Monaghan-based Activ8 Solar Energies spoke in May about the rough and tumble of business after the Monaghan senior football team walked out on to the pitch at Croke Park to play All Ireland champions Dublin wearing jerseys emblazoned with the Activ8 logo.
“It’s the most popular Bill ever signed in the history of the country. What we’ve done is put everything into one Bill. We’ve never had anything like that before.”
US president Donald Trump in July speaking to the media as his “big, beautiful Bill”, a sweeping spending package, is signed into law during a picnic at the White House.
Cathal Friel, Raglan Capital. Photograph: Alan Betson
“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the family. The older kids were at university and the younger ones were behind me in school. I spent years dealing with the bank trying to pay down debt and get rid of things.”
In the summer, serial dealmaker Cathal Friel, the seventh of 10 children, spoke about having to leave school at 16 to run indebted businesses when his father became ill. It left him with a lifelong aversion to debt and property investment.
“The importance and benefit of international co-operation has been a key theme of my public life. I will soon be taking up the role of managing director and chief knowledge officer of the World Bank Group, based in Washington DC. I am therefore departing from public life in Ireland.”
Then minister for finance Paschal Donohoe resigned his Dáil seat and left ministerial office to take up a role at the World Bank.
“They stopped pretending. The mask is off. You’re getting fired if you speak out. Back in the day, [tech employees] used to be even asking questions [of their employer] in the comments on company chat boards.”
In June, William Fitzgerald, the Waterford-born founder of The Worker Agency, spoke about the slavishness of tech barons to the Trump administration despite Silicon Valley’s previous outwardly liberal gloss.
“I grew up on checkouts from a young age and it’s in my DNA. I grew up in that environment and it teaches you so much about efficiencies, waste and getting value for the customer. I was on the checkout from nine or 10 years of age right up to leaving university.”
In September, Robert Ryan, the chief executive of Lidl’s Irish business, explained how he got a taste from retail from an early age while working in the family shop.
2025 in numbers€789,000
The median price paid for a home in Dublin 6 in the third quarter, making it the most expensive Eircode in the State, according to property firm Geowox. The district, which includes Rathmines, Ranelagh and Rathgar, recorded the highest median sales price in the State, up 23 per cent year-on-year.
5 per cent
The State’s jobless rate in July, hitting that mark for the first time since January 2022, according to revised figures from the Central Statistics Office.
€1.4 billion
The amount paid by Scandinavian property companies Pandox and Eiendomsspar as they agreed to buy Ireland’s largest hotel group Dalata.
Dalata, which operates 56 hotels under the four-star Maldron and Clayton brands, mainly in Ireland and Britain, had rejected an initial bid from Pandox and Eiendomsspar in early June that had valued the hotel operator at €1.3 billion.
Kenny Jacobs of DAA and Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien. Photograph: Alan Betson €960,000
The proposed severance deal for airport operator DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs that was taken off the table after Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien blocked the payment, raising yet more questions about the months-long standoff at the top of the airports group.
[ Severance deal of near €1m for DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs off the tableOpens in new window ]
O’Brien in November refused to approve the €960,000 payment to Mr Jacobs, which was agreed in September after mediation between the chief executive and the DAA board in talks chaired by industrial relations troubleshooter Kieran Mulvey.
15 per cent
The cap on any future tariffs on pharmaceutical and semiconductor imports imposed by the United States on the European Union.
The deal struck by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen with Trump saw European countries head off the US president’s threats of cripplingly high import taxes on products sold across the Atlantic.
Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Trump. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Nine
The number of weeks a bitter High Court civil trial involving three shareholders of tech conference giant Web Summit had been scheduled to last before it was struck out.
The case was resolved after talks between the parties concluded with founder Paddy Cosgrave saying he was “delighted” two of his former friends would leave the company.
Majority shareholder Cosgrave was suing David Kelly, who owned 12 per cent of the business, for alleged breaches of his fiduciary duties as a director of the company.
Mr Cosgrave was, in turn, being sued by Kelly and another shareholder, Daire Hickey, who holds 7 per cent of the shares in Web Summit, for both alleged shareholder oppression and alleged breaches of a profit-sharing agreement.
€217,087
The salary advertised by the Government for its new housing tsar who will be charged with managing the crisis and increasing supply.
The role was plunged into controversy when the expected appointee, Brendan McDonagh, the chief executive of the National Asset Management Agency, withdrew from consideration. That came after it emerged Fine Gael had not been consulted on the plan to hire McDonagh, who was expected to keep his existing €430,000 salary.
€26 billion
The “colossal” bill the State could soon be facing for missing EU-agreed climate targets, equivalent to a full year of corporate tax receipts or the annual health budget.
A report by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and Climate Change Advisory Council provided one of the starkest warnings yet of the potential costs involved in failing to adapt to the climate reality.
It found that the Republic – on a per capita basis – had the highest emissions target gap of EU member states, meaning it was the least likely to meet its 2030 target of reducing emissions by 51 per cent on the basis of its current trajectory.
The Republic is the EU member state least likely to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target. Photograph: Alan Betson 30 per cent
The drop in the State’s corporate tax receipts in May compared to a year earlier as the exchequer collected €2.5 billion, which was €1.1 billion less that May 2024.
Downplaying the decline, the Department of Finance attributed it to “once-off factors” which, it said, boosted receipts last year and distorted the year-on-year comparison. No panic though as €10 billion in corporation tax was received in November, a record for a single month.
10 per cent
The top percentile of richest households in the Republic holding almost half the wealth, according to Central Bank of Ireland data.
The total net wealth of households here rose to a record €1.25 trillion in the first quarter of 2025, up €6.3 billion on the previous quarter. The figures showed that the wealthiest 10 per cent of households held €645 billion or 48.6 per cent of the total.
This was five times the wealth held by the bottom 50 per cent of households, which stood at €117.8 billion or 8.9 per cent of the national total.
[ One in 10 Irish households have net wealth of more than €1mOpens in new window ]
€301 million
The insurance industry’s final bill for Storm Éowyn, which struck Ireland in January, making it the most expensive insurance event in Irish history.
The storm was one of the most damaging Ireland has ever faced, bringing gusts of 184km/h, breaking a record that had stood since 1945. Some 815,000 properties on the island lost power, with 768,000 of these in the Republic.
Many were without power for weeks, while hundreds of energy technicians were drafted in from abroad to help ESB Networks with repairs. A breakdown of the final toll from the event released to The Irish Times shows a total of 33,768 claims were lodged.
Storm Éowyn wreaked havoc in Ireland in January 2025. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd €57,000
The estimated worth of a payment halted by State-owned energy company Bord na Móna for its chief executive after officials said continuing the “unsanctioned” earnings risked undermining public pay policy.
The payment, which covered benefit-in-kind taxes on Tom Donnellan’s health insurance and company car, has been dropped from a new contract signed by the chief executive in April, the company confirmed.
€1.58 billion
The value of PTSB after it put itself up for sale. The 57 per cent State-owned bank surprised the stock market by the move, which sent its market value up 23.4 per cent in Dublin.
[ Paschal Donohoe must use PTSB sale to find owner with vision – not just a red penOpens in new window ]
A deal would mark the return of all three domestic banks that survived the 2008 financial crisis to private ownership – and complete the recovery of the €29.4 billion in total that was injected into them.
PTSB, by far the smallest of the three, has been dogged by low profit returns since the crash. This is largely due to its small scale – even after increasing its balance sheet by about 50 per cent between 2022 and 2023 after acquiring €6.8 billion of Ulster Bank loans.