‘If any company can come back from this, it is Volkswagen’
Ralph Lissek is in great form when we meet at the German-Ireland Chamber of Industry and Commerce headquarters on Dublin's historic Fitzwilliam Square, days before Germany's thrashing by Ireland on the football pitch. The chamber has just hosted its biggest event of the year, its Oktoberfest celebration, for which 450 Irish and German executives gathered in Croke Park over steins of weissbeir and wurst. "The Irish think that, because they are used to pints, they can handle more beer than most Europeans. But I don't think they were prepared for the steins," he smiles.