Our lead story this morning concerns an intervention from the competition watchdog, the CCPC, which is asking the Government to raise the threshold at which businesses are obliged to inform it of mergers and acquisitions.

The watchdog has to be formally notified of mergers or acquisitions involving businesses above a certain turnover, with the idea being that the more business a group does, the more important it is in a competition sense.

The threshold at which the CCPC is mandated to get involved hasn’t changed in more than five years, during which time inflation has led to higher turnovers for companies, and the CCPC says many of the deals landing on its desk are not worth its time. Conor Pope has the details.