Ex-Munster rugby star’s company eyes big investment and Patrick Collison’s anti-wealth tax campaign

A company run by former Munster rugby star Federico Pucciariello is weighing a €360 million investment in a sustainable aviation fuel plant in the Republic.

Known as Freddy to fans, Argentinian-born Pucciariello played 85 games for Munster across four seasons, including the side’s historic Heineken Cup win over Biarritz in Cardiff in 2006. Barry O’Halloran has the story.

We also have a report about how Stripe’s Patrick Collison is funding a campaign to oppose a wealth tax in California. The proposed measure that would impose a one-time 5 per cent tax on about 200 residents of the state who have more than $1 billion in assets, excluding property.

In her weekly column, Pilita Clarke of the Financial Times writes about how the age of disaster prepping is upon us. Against a backdrop of winter power cuts, a backdrop of a scorching summer, interminable talk of Vladimir Putin, cyber attacks and the seemingly endless wars “we are, as it were, totally prepped for prepping,” she writes.

Meanwhile Killian Woods reports on Patrick Doran’s Woodberry Packaging group, which booked a near-tenfold increase in profits in 2025 after collecting more than €13 million in dividends.

Last year, the main Irish subsidiary that owns Doran’s interests in print and packaging company Colorman and several other UK businesses in the sector recorded a €13.1 million profit, compared to €1.3 million the previous year.

A new survey indicates that while workers want more holidays almost half of them do not take their full leave entitlement. Almost eight out of 10 Irish workers want annual leave increased, according to a study by FRS Recruitment.

In his weekly economics column, Prof John FitzGerald opines on how the EU could learn from Ireland’s protectionist past.

“The rise of China as a significant world manufacturing centre benefiting from government subsidies, along with hostile and erratic US policy to its trading partners, has sharply altered the world trade order,” he writes.

We also have a piece from Marie McGinley, partner and head of the technology and innovation group at Matheson LLP, on how companies should not just be adopting AI but building it.

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