Dublin, Monday, 5th December, 2016: Eight of Ireland’s leading business journalists from The Irish Times, Sunday Business Post, UTV Ireland, RTÉ News, Fora.ie/TheJournal.ie and Irish Independent were honoured today by the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School Business Journalist Awards 2016. The awards ceremony, in its tenth year and sponsored by open eir for the fourth year in a row, was held in Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel to recognise the quality and diversity of Irish business journalism.

The winners of the seven categories this year are:

• Business News Story – Barry O’Halloran, The Irish Times, for his piece entitled; ‘Loan system is paying off for Cerberus’
• Economic Commentator / Business Analyst – Stephen Kinsella of the Sunday Business Post for contributions: ‘Crisis, what Crisis?’; ‘The Dickensian Repercussions’; and ‘Time to party like it’s 2006’
• Business Feature – Paul Colgan, UTV Ireland for his feature; ‘Insight: Is the Property Bubble Back?’
• Specialist Business Reporter – Will Goodbody of RTÉ for his reports on: ‘ECJ rules US-EU data transfer invalid’; ‘National Broadband Plan Ownership Model’ and ‘World’s First Autonomous Drone’
• Business Interview – Barry Whyte, Sunday Business Post for an interview with Annette de Vere Hunt
• Upcoming Journalist of the Year – Paul O’Donoghue, Fora.ie/TheJournal.ie for articles on ‘Gilead’; ‘Cork Science Park’; and an interview with Brian Caulfield
• Technology Reporter – Marie Boran, The Irish Times for a piece entitled, ‘Track Record’

In addition to the seven listed categories, an Outstanding Achievement Award was presented to Charlie Weston of Irish Independent for his contribution to business journalism over a career spanning 30 years for his work in print media and as a regular broadcast contributor. From his early days in the Fingal and Drogheda Independent, he moved to the Middle East and the UK to work as a journalist before returning home to Ireland to join the then Sunday Press before moving on to the Independent News & Media Group, where he has worked for 20 years, ultimately becoming Personal Finance Editor, a role which he continues to hold.

Charlie joins a prestigious list of previous winners including: Matt Cooper, Frank Fitzgibbon, Damien Kiberd, Brendan Keenan, Cliff Taylor and Richard Curran.

This year’s independent judging panel comprised of business, journalism, economic and academic leaders: Emer Gilvarry; Partner, Mason Hayes & Curran (Chair); Professor Ciarán Ó’hÓgartaigh, Dean UCD Business; Carolan Lennon, Managing Director, open eir; Miriam Hughes, CEO DDFH&B Communications Group; Jon Ihle, Head of Communications at Goodbody; Professor Donncha Kavanagh, UCD Smurfit School; Simon McKeever, CEO of Irish Exporters Association; Joan Mulvihill, CEO at Irish Internet Association; Christopher McKevitt, business journalist and broadcaster; and Rodney Rice, former RTE broadcaster.