Richard to front Irish Dragon's Den
FINANCIAL GURU: Dragon's Den host Richard Curran
Wednesday September 24 2008
THE journalist who sent shudders throughout the Irish property sector will present the Irish version of Dragon's Den, the Herald can reveal.
The Irish version of the programme is expected to be screened on RTE soon and will be presented by journalist Richard Curran.
RTE are expected to unveil details of the new programme and line-up in the coming days.
And one of the four 'dragons' has been tipped as Niall Farrell, the founder of dress hire company 'Black Tie'.
Interestingly, the programme is being produced by Shinawil -- who are also behind TV3's The Apprentice, which stars entrepreneur Bill Cullen and his partner Jackie Lavin. Critics are impressed with the first episode of this programme and it remains to be seen whether RTE's version of Dragon's Den will be scheduled at the same time on Monday nights in a direct bid to get more viewers.
Many viewers will remember Richard Curran, who is deputy editor of the Sunday Business Post, for presenting an installment of the Future Shock series last year which focused on the pending property market crash. Mr Curran was not available for comment when he was contacted by the Herald yesterday.
The programme led to wide-scale criticism from a number of property and construction experts.
Auctioneers and government officials blame the RTE programme for unsettling the property market, now at its lowest ebb in over five years.
"Our view is simply that we felt the programme was sensationalist and pessimistic without basis," said a spokesman for the Construction Industry Federation shortly after it was screened last year.
"The show was predicted on a whole series of future events that were made to look like the present. It was scaremongering.''
The RTE show was even criticised by another of the station's experts, property guru John McGuire.
The presenter of I'm An Adult, Get Me Out Of Here hit out at the tone and pitch of the programme as being designed to panic.
The much-hyped show speculated that house prices would collapse by 35pc in two years and warned that the average price of a three-bedroom semi would fall in value by more than €100,000.
The UK Dragon's Den has been a massive hit.
- Jane Last
