Joe Lynam

Coming up on today's show, we'll be talking to the boss of the biggest house builder in Ireland, Glenn Vey, and we'll be looking at cashmere sweater business in St.

Island Street in Dublin and all the markets as usual.

You can email us business at newstalk.com.

But first, let's have a look at the main business stories in the newspapers and websites.

The Journal.ie reports that Ireland's media regulator has commenced a formal investigation into X over concerns about how it handles reported content.

Comisíon na mBan suspects the platform, formerly known as Twitter, may not be in compliance with its obligations under Article 20 of the Digital Services Act, which sets out rules on how complaints should be managed by social media companies.

If the social media company owned by billionaire Elon Musk is found to have violated the act, it could face a fine of up to 6% of its global turnover.

The FT reports that Brussels is planning a fresh investigation into Google's parent company Alphabet over its ranking of news outlets in search results, even as Donald Trump threatens new tariffs over the EU's digital rulebook.

Two officials told the FT that the commission was opening a probe into claims that Google demoted publishers carrying third-party promotional content, such as sponsored editorial articles, which media groups claim are key to their business model.

The commission was set to announce the new investigation today, though that timing is shifting.

The new probe falls under the Digital Markets Act, which is designed to tackle the dominance of digital gatekeepers, or the biggest online platforms.

And Joe Brennan in the Irish Times reports that the ECB vice president has said that the EU's current agenda to simplify business rules and boost capital flow across the union aimed at enhancing competitiveness cannot succeed without the development of a true single market for goods and services.

Speaking at the Federation of International Banks in Ireland conference in Dublin, with the focus on how banking regulators are feeding into EU simplification,

Luis de Guindos said it was impossible to have a savings and investment union without a real integration of goods and services.

The EU single market has been around since 1993.

However, a landmark report by Mario Draghi found that Europe's existing internal barriers act as a de facto 44% tariff on average goods and a 100% tariff for services.

Now, Chambers Ireland have today released the Irish results of Europe's largest business sentiment survey.

The 2026 Euro Chambers Economic Survey, based on responses from over 41,000 businesses across Europe, reveals that businesses are striving to get on a growth trajectory after several challenging years.

While the Irish results indicate a degree of optimism, the top three challenges they identified looking ahead to 2026 are labour costs, a lack of skilled workers and regulatory burdens.

Joining me now to discuss this further is the Chief Executive of Chambers Ireland, Ian Talbot.