Trade talks, tech giant lobbying and death of a retail giant

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from ‘The Irish Times’ business desk

Beef imports will be top of the agenda when EU and Mercosur officials meet today to try to hammer out a stalled trade deal, writes Patrick Smyth from Brussels, even if it is anathema to Irish farmers.

Tech giants lobbied the Government intensively last year to seek EU review of tough new German rules on tackling hate speech online, Simon Carswell reports. The details have emerged through Freedom of Information.

Derek Scally takes a look at the remarkable life of Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who died yesterday at the age of 91, having built his retail giant up from nothing.

Ireland's advertising sector needs to accept greater diversity and gender equality, its new presidentJimmy Murphy tells Laura Slattery.

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Racehorse breeders gathered at the weekend to express their fears about the impact of Brexit on an industry that relies heavily on exports across the UK border and freedom of movement. Barry O'Halloran has the details.

In his column, Chris Johns casts a sceptical eye at frothy stock markets and questions the mantra the "it will be different this time" as valuations keep rising.

And Pilita Clark casts an equally harsh glance at the modern workplace predilection for psychometric testing, reminding us that this was the practice that gave us the man now known as the Crystal Methodist, former Coop Bank chief, Paul Flowers.

Dominic Coyle

Dominic Coyle

Dominic Coyle is Deputy Business Editor of The Irish Times