AGP Executive Report

Health Research: UCD researchers report microplastics in 66% of lung cancer patients’ lung fluid samples versus 46% without cancer, with higher particle burdens in cancer cases—though the team stresses it’s still unclear whether plastics cause cancer or diseased lungs retain more. Online Safety Policy: EU member states, via the Irish Council Presidency, are pressing the European Commission for faster, stronger protections for children online, balancing tougher platform duties with privacy and practical age-check questions. Aviation Incident: Ryanair’s Boeing 737 MAX aborted a Dublin landing after a wingtip scrape in crosswinds; the airline says the impact was minor and the aircraft was repaired before returning to service. Energy & Transport Tech: Continental Tyres renews its partnership with Blood Bikes Leinster, backing volunteer rapid-response transport of time-critical medical supplies across the region. AI & Math: A high-profile claim that the Navier–Stokes problem was “cracked” by AI is reigniting debate in the maths community over whether AI is solving problems or changing how mathematicians work. Food & Packaging: Mondelēz replaces rigid PET cookie trays with FSC-certified paper trays across 115+ products in Europe, aiming to cut virgin plastic by about 2,200 tonnes a year.

MRSA in Ireland: A new medical report links a drug-resistant MRSA outbreak to bouncy castle play at a 2025 gathering in eastern Ireland, sickening 48 children and teens and sending 15 to hospital. Public safety & health: The strain carried PVL toxin and is described as the largest community-acquired MRSA outbreak in Ireland tied to inflatables, with symptoms appearing rapidly after the event. AI in public services: The UK government is considering using AI to replace parts of middle management and admin work in the public service over the next decade, aiming to slow pay-cost growth without mass layoffs. Irish tech & finance: Ireland is pushing fintech collaboration with India, with AI and digital payments highlighted as key areas for partnership. Healthcare workforce: A new report finds record numbers of clinically active doctors in Ireland, including 5,017 GPs, while noting an ageing workforce. Drones & agriculture: Drone-applied nutrition is gaining traction, with approvals pointing to more farm tech use. Local governance: Belfast councillors criticise long-running failures with portaloo toilets at Victoria Park, calling the situation “crap.”

Drones in agriculture: Drone as a Service says it has Ireland Aviation Authority SORA approval for drone-applied fertiliser, lime and biostimulants, aiming for safer, more precise plant nutrition on sensitive land. Online safety policy: Coimisiún na Meán research finds most Irish children and many parents prefer online safety education over a social media ban, with concerns that bans would be bypassed. Age-friendly AI: ADAPT Centre and TU Dublin’s Age-Friendly AI project is rolling out community workshops via public libraries to help older adults use everyday AI tools and avoid scams. Counter-drone security: Gardaí say they have “mitigated” drones at recent security events using new detection and counter-drone systems ahead of major visits. Health tech and risk: A study links bouncy castle play to the largest recorded MRSA outbreak in Ireland, hospitalising children after close contact at a single event. AI in business: Furniture Connect says its AI platform helps UK, US and Ireland retailers launch 100+ furniture products a week by turning supplier data into sales-ready content. AI governance: The Irish enterprise minister says AI “risk models” will be assessed after warnings that advanced AI could become existential. Local tech growth: Accenture promotes nine managing directors in Ireland, including leaders working on AI-led life sciences and digital transformation. Media oversight: TikTok will attend Ireland’s Oireachtas Media Committee on 23 September after initially declining.

AI for the Moon: NASA and IBM have released an open-source lunar foundation model to help researchers study the Moon, including spotting likely ice-rich areas and identifying craters from new impact images. Energy & data centres: Ireland’s energy minister says data centres are key to the country’s industrial base, defending proposals that could trade discounted network tariffs for intermittent supply cutbacks during peak demand. Child poverty measurement: The Taoiseach challenged the ESRI’s poverty-line methodology, prompting a closer look at the “60% of median disposable income” benchmark and what it means for families. Online safety for kids: A new analysis finds manipulative design tactics used to hook children aren’t just on social media, but also in games and AI apps—highlighting notifications, personalised feeds, and autoplay. Medical device manufacturing: Surmodics expanded medical-device coating capabilities in Galway with dedicated clean-room environments, aiming to support development through commercialisation. Drones as services: A market push argues drone value is shifting from selling aircraft to ongoing data and inspection services, with precision agriculture and infrastructure monitoring leading demand. Online safety regulation: Ireland’s media regulator is moving to investigate X’s age assurance and parental controls under new online safety rules.

AI in Irish education: UCD has appointed its first Director of AI Institute, but students are pushing back over how AI is being rolled into classrooms. Drones for farming: ZenaTech’s Drone as a Service unit has won Irish Aviation Authority approval to scale precision aerial spreading of fertilizer, lime and bio stimulants across Irish farmland. Public transport squeeze: The NTA is raising fares from January 2027, with Dublin Leap Card adult fares up to €2.30 and an average 15% increase nationwide. Road safety and social media: Irish reporting links a rise in reckless driving incidents to social media algorithms amplifying dangerous behaviour. Workforce shifts from AI: Microsoft’s Ireland Work Trend Index finds AI is making many workers reconsider careers, with optimism about economic opportunity but fears about falling behind. Health and policy: The CSO reports nearly 20% of 2025 deaths occurred in disadvantaged areas, while the HSE warns festival-goers about high-strength ecstasy and copycat pills. Space research: IBM and NASA launch an open source lunar AI model and release petabytes of Moon data for researchers. New medical training: UL launches Ireland’s first direct-entry medicine programme since 1854.

Online Safety: Ireland’s media regulator has opened its first investigation under the Online Safety Code into X, focusing on whether age assurance and parental controls are actually effective for keeping children away from adult content. AI at School: A new EU Kids Online survey suggests one in five Irish children and teens use AI for schoolwork, with Ireland among the lowest users in Europe but still showing clear uptake for writing and summarising. Work & Skills: Microsoft Ireland’s Work Trend Index says almost half of Irish workers are reconsidering their careers over AI, while 63% already use AI tools at work—yet many report lacking training or guidance. Agritech & Farming: Teagasc research on GROdairy points to up to 900 collaborative farming opportunities for Irish dairy farms, as generational renewal pressures push more shared models. Dairy Industry: FBD Insurance is named title sponsor of the National Dairy Show in Cork, backing the 44th edition of the major sector event. Construction AI Safety: A new AI heat-stress early-warning system is being used to protect construction workers, combining biosensors and environmental monitoring for real-time alerts.

AI Infrastructure in Ireland’s Orbit: Google says it will invest at least €13bn in Finland to build new AI data centre capacity, with grid upgrades and clean energy plans—another reminder that power and cooling are now the bottlenecks for Europe’s tech boom. Irish Cybersecurity Funding: Dublin payments-risk platform ZeroRisk raises $10m Series A to scale its merchant cyber risk view and remediation guidance for major payment providers. Biotech Manufacturing Tools: Bracco expands BubbleGen with a CD3+ T cell selection kit aimed at bead-free, scalable CAR-T workflows. Data Centres, But Make It Operational: Scality launches Scality Maestro to help service providers manage backup-as-a-service object storage fleets across many customer sites. Irish Health Tech & Access: Vision Ireland begins rolling out Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses via gifting and training events in locations including Athlone. Energy Storage Approvals: Jacobs is appointed to support EnergyPathways’ MESH long-duration storage project through planning, consenting, and Ofgem cap-and-floor work. Education & Skills: WorldSkills Ireland 2026 spotlights young talent heading to Shanghai, including Galway’s Automobile Technology competitor. Public Sector Transparency: SETU keeps key parts of a Carlow College due-diligence report heavily redacted, citing commercial sensitivity.

Education & Skills: New OECD PISA 2025 results show maths, reading and science skills slipping again worldwide, with OECD warning that students are getting worse at critical reading in the AI age. Ireland Focus: Ireland’s 15-year-olds still rank very high in reading in the latest PISA reporting, but separate coverage flags a worrying drop in maths and reading performance over recent years. Public Health & Care: An Irish commentary argues Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder is still underdiagnosed, warning that missed needs can spiral into lifelong learning, social and legal consequences. Climate & Forestry: Ireland is set to “grossly fail” its tree-planting target of 22 million trees (8,000 hectares) as a climate watchdog says current forestry progress is increasingly unrealistic. Transport Tech: Irish travellers are affected by UK air-traffic control disruption after a NATS technical glitch, with Dublin reporting dozens of cancellations and ongoing knock-on delays. Biotech & Medicine: UCD researchers traced sheep pox virus DNA from ancient parchment manuscripts, showing libraries may preserve genetic traces of animal outbreaks for thousands of years. Regulation & Online Safety: Ireland’s media regulator opens a formal investigation into X over child age assurance and parental control effectiveness under the Online Safety Code. Healthcare Data: A UK-and-Ireland GI endoscopy report says more than 15 million procedures have been logged since 2015, with accreditation and training expanding.

Border Tech & Travel: Ryanair blasts the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) as a “shambles” after queues and delays since the grace period ended on Sept 6, urging the Commission to extend derogations to April 2027. AI for Legal Work: Newcode launches Ireland’s first AI enablement programme for legal professionals, training 475 staff across 30 firms in responsible, governed AI use. Fraud Tech: CRIF rolls out an AI anti-fraud service for UK banks and insurers to spot tampering during business onboarding, including visual manipulation and deepfakes. Education & Skills: PISA 2025 results put Irish 15-year-olds top in EU reading, third in science and fourth in maths, though reading and maths declines are flagged. Energy & Geothermal: Dublin Seismic Survey plans non-invasive mapping to assess deep geothermal potential under the capital. Climate Risk: UCC researchers publish a national coastal exposure map showing Galway and Dublin coasts among the most exposed to flooding and erosion. Workplace Pay Rules: Mason Hayes & Curran finds only 1 in 5 Irish employers have made substantive progress on upcoming EU pay transparency compliance. Industry Deal: Orangeworks appoints Hugo Loonam Motors as an INEOS dealer in Ireland.

Child Poverty in Ireland: New ESRI research with Community Foundation Ireland says child poverty rose despite average household income growth, with the number of children below the poverty line up by almost 30,000 to 200,000 in 2024. After housing costs, the figure jumps to 260,000, and deprivation hits hardest among families with young children. AI at Work: A Working in Ireland survey finds about a third of Irish workers use AI, with most saying it improves output quality and that they use saved time for more complex tasks. Digital Payments Lessons: IDA Ireland says Ireland is studying India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) as it looks for convergence with Irish fintech and its new national AI strategy. Data Centres & Energy: Ireland’s regulator-linked proposal to offer data centres cut-price gas has been criticised as risky, with opponents warning it could strain supply during extreme cold. Cave Art Research: The Lost Land Bridge Project reports possible 15,000-year-old cave art in southwest Ireland, potentially reshaping ideas about early human arrival—though researchers say more verification is needed. Funding for Innovation: Enterprise Ireland’s DTIF “DisrupTech on Tour” in Limerick will guide applicants for a €40m disruptive tech fund, with applications closing Feb 3, 2027.

Payment Security: Ireland’s Central Bank says payment fraud hit €179.04m in 2025, up 27.2%, with authorised push payment scams now 45% of fraud by value. Legal & Research: Rape Crisis Ireland will host a Dublin symposium launching new research on how courts assess sexual experience and third-party records in cases. Longevity & Work: Irish Life’s Life100+ report finds only 1 in 5 people expect to fully retire in the traditional way, with most expecting to work longer. AI & Computing: A new “digital twin” optical computing system aims to let developers train and optimise without constant access to physical hardware. Life Sciences Manufacturing: Flow Technology partners with BW Forsyth Partners to support biopharma manufacturing expansion in the US and Europe. Tech Jobs & Studios: TCS launches an AI-native creative engineering studio in London as part of its push to create 5,000 UK jobs. Health Logistics: Synnovis and Apian expand drone and robotics use for pathology sample delivery across London. Housing: ESRI research says Irish house prices are ~17% above levels supported by economic fundamentals, pointing to affordability pressure. Education Costs: A new report highlights how school devices can blur the line between learning essentials and home digital spending.

Online Child Safety: Ireland’s EU presidency hosts an online safety conference in Dublin as child advocates watch the fallout from Meta’s $18bn US settlement, which includes limits on usage time, stronger age checks, non-algorithmic feeds options, and hiding engagement metrics for younger users. AI & Jobs: PayPal is restructuring and cutting roles tied to AI fraud and transaction analysis, with reported layoffs including Ireland (164), as the company shifts toward AI integration. Public Transport Tech: KeolisAmey Luas has started operating and maintaining Dublin’s Luas network, aiming to boost reliability and passenger experience using remote monitoring and new maintenance processes. Research & Funding: Enterprise Ireland is running “DisrupTech on Tour” in Mullingar to help firms and researchers prepare for the next €40m Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund call. Health & Loneliness: A Europe-wide study presented at the ERS Congress links smoking to increased loneliness, suggesting smoking can harm social wellbeing as well as physical health. Agritech: Irish dairy farmers are investing in new rotary milking parlours to cut milking times and future-proof larger herds. Community & Wellbeing: A survey by Irish Life finds only one in five adults expect to fully retire traditionally, with many planning phased work and higher pension targets.

Defence & Deterrence: NATO says a German frigate test fired the Israeli LORA ballistic missile in the North Atlantic, with the exercise kept secret until after completion—an unmistakable signal to Russia about Europe’s longer-range strike work. Archaeology & Irish History: New analysis of the “Kerry cow” bones from Ferriter’s Cove reclassifies them as bear and wild boar, rewriting assumptions about when farming arrived in Ireland. Rural Research: University of Galway and ATU are reviving the “Rural Voices” seminar series to give farmers and rural communities a direct line to recognised research and evidence-based policy. Agritech: Bayer Crop Science launches Mateno Duo, a winter cereal herbicide targeting annual meadow grass and broad-leaved weeds, with guidance on pre- and post-emergence use. Justice System: Criminal courts are disrupted by a criminal legal aid dispute, with bench warrants issued after defendants failed to appear during a defence solicitor strike. Climate: A new UN report warns the world is set to overshoot 1.5°C within the next few years, pushing the focus to “peak and decline” damage control.

Offshore Wind Shake-up: Orsted has appointed Enrique Arana Bachelis to lead commercial enablement and named Alex Louden head of innovation for offshore wind delivery, while Siemens Gamesa added Parisa Bardouni as SVP head of nacelle-wind turbine technology. Climate Urgency: A new UN assessment says the 1.5°C threshold is set to be crossed within the next few years, shifting the focus to “overshoot, peak and decline” damage control. Ancient Ireland Discovery: A Lost Land Bridge Project team reports cave art in south-west Ireland that could push back the earliest known human presence by about 5,000 years, with a possible Wales-to-Ireland route during the last Ice Age. Health & Tech: UCD-led research finds microplastics in lung samples, with higher levels in people with lung cancer—raising questions about links to disease. AI Policy in Europe: The EU’s Cloud and AI Development Act is drawing scrutiny over who gets early drafting power as it targets data centre and cloud rules. Public Preparedness: Ireland’s Department of Health survey finds only about one in five people think the Government is prepared for a new pandemic lockdown.

Education Resilience: An EU- and Lithuania-funded underground school opened in frontline Sumy, with Ireland co-funding, giving 700 students a safe return to in-person classes in 12 classrooms. Skills & Careers: Westport’s Orlaith McGeough, a TU Dublin student, will represent Ireland at WorldSkills Shanghai 2026 in Logistics and Freight Forwarding. Renewables & Industry: ESB’s Chleansaid onshore wind farm in Scotland has secured German-made GE Vernova turbines with split-blade tech, targeting commercial operation in 2028. Health & Fertility: Beacon CARE Fertility in Limerick shares practical guidance on when to seek fertility advice, testing options like AMH and semen analysis, and treatment pathways. AI & Policy: Ireland’s state savings scheme will exclude crypto but won’t impose limits by sector or geography, raising questions about whether tax incentives should steer investment. Science & Heritage: UCD-led researchers extracted ancient sheep pox DNA from medieval parchment manuscripts, showing how old texts can preserve animal disease history. Global Mapping Politics: The UN General Assembly backed a new equal-area world map approach, with Ukraine abstaining over how occupied territory is depicted.

AI Regulation: The EU is weighing whether to classify ChatGPT and other generative tools as “high-risk” under the AI Act, which could tighten exemptions and raise compliance burdens for developers. Ancient Science: New cave art research suggests some of the first known humans in Ireland arrived from Wales via a “lost land bridge,” pushing back timelines by thousands of years. Healthcare Tech: Lupin won U.S. FDA approval for Modafinil tablets (100mg/200mg), expanding access to a wakefulness treatment for narcolepsy, sleep apnea and shift work disorder. Education & Innovation: The Taoiseach backed a €22m Kinsale Community School expansion, including new science capacity and a Digital Research Hub. Public Health & Farming: Ireland confirmed a new bluetongue case in Wexford, urging farmers to report unexplained deaths and consider vaccination. Cyber/Crime: A major Garda operation in Dublin seized drugs, ammunition and a boat engine, with forensic analysis to follow.