By Business & Finance 
Business & Finance brings you the day’s Irish business news in brief.
What does UK’s aggressive Brexit approach mean for UK-Irish relations? Theresa May today confirmed that the UK is to leave the European single market as concern grows regarding this hardline approach. Ibec has said that any move by the UK to unilaterally forge new global trade deals was at odds with membership of the current EU customs union. Ibec CEO Danny McCoy said: “The possibility of the UK leaving both the single market and the customs union raises fundamental questions about Ireland’s future trading relations with the UK. This is an aggressive move by the UK, showing little regard for our trading relationship and for relations with other EU member states. This is likely to lead to a protracted and unwelcome period of uncertainty and instability for business. Ireland is uniquely exposed to the risks given out deep economic ties with the UK.” Read the full article here. Central Bank finalises sales of Dame Street and College Green premises The Central Bank of Ireland has completed the sale of its Dame Street premises to the Hines and Peterson Group. The sale price for the portfolio is in the region of €67,000,000. The portfolio includes the Tower Building and commercial buildings, 9 College Green, as well as and 6-8 College Green. The Central Bank will remain in the buildings as the move to the new Dockland campus continues. The move of all staff to the new premises will be completed in the first quarter of 2017. As part of the decision to move the Bank considered a number of alternate options, including investment in our existing properties, before choosing to develop a partially constructed building at North Wall Quay. The Central Bank will retain the proceeds as part of its income.
Public sector pay must reflect needs of wider economy
Ibec today said it understood the move by Government to bring forward the terms of the Lansdowne Road Agreement, in line with the better than expected economic performance and the importance of maintaining industrial peace and a collective approach to pay in the public service.
However, the group cautioned that pay trends must reflect what is affordable, given the competing demand for resources.
With the report of the Public Service Pay Commission expected by Easter, Ibec emphasised the need to maintain a strong collective pay agreement for the public sector. Ibec said any new arrangement must reflect the needs of business and the wider economy, not just public sector workers, and must include taxation reform and new investment in infrastructure and public services.
Irish technology company signs significant distribution deal
Manufacturing software specialist Seabrook Technology Group is the newly appointed main distributor of Siemens Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software for the entire Irish manufacturing sector.
Revenue from the new contract will reach in excess of €1m and create three new jobs in the next 12 months.
Seabrook has been in operation for 27 years, and in the past four years has tripled its workforce and opened offices in California, Indiana and the UK.
Seabrook will now be the primary supplier for the full range of Siemens’ PLM products to manufacturers across all sectors in Ireland.
This will include pharma, food and beverages, medical devices, machinery, computer and semi-conductor manufacturers, among others.
CIOs still lack diversity and are rooted in STEM degrees
Experis research has reported that, despite a cross-industry drive for diversity, core defining factors remain fundamentally traditional in professional IT resourcing.
The analysis shows that the average CIO working for a major organisation is male, comes from a science background and has decades of experience under their belt.
Geoff Smith, managing director at Experis UK and Ireland, comments: “From working with some of the top CIOs at the world’s biggest organisations, we recognise that there is still a traditional route ‘to the top’, founded in technology and science and often moving up within a company. However, it’s encouraging to see that some of today’s highflyers studied humanities or business subjects before moving into technology and IT.”
€34.5 in funding for the Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative
Enterprise Ireland has approved the third phase of its Technology Transfer Strengthening Initiative (TTSI) which serves to bolster the capability within the knowledge transfer system in Ireland.
This phase of the programme will see €34.5m invested over five years to further embed the transfer of knowledge from within the public research system to industry in Ireland and vice versa.
It will also help sustain capacity to support the process of knowledge transfer and commercialisation of research from Irish research performing organisations (RPOs) around the country.
