Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

· In the Dáil on Wednesday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin issued an apology on behalf of the State to survivors of abuse in industrial and reformatory schools. Nobody doubts the sincerity of such apologies, but given the number of them over the years, perhaps their rhetoric should be matched with the practicalities and supports survivors need.

· With the Residential Tenancies Bill comes into effect from March 1st, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty was accused of “scaremongering and misinformation” by Tánaiste Simon Harris in the Dáil on Thursday. Doherty pointed to research carried out by I-Res Reit, the State’s largest corporate landlord, which suggested a potential increase in rent returns of up to 25 per cent resulting from the new rent rules. The new rules are designed to attract new investors into the rental property sector, and what could be more attractive than charging higher rents?

· The glacial speed at which vital infrastructure projects such as the Greater Dublin Drainage Project are delivered here could be accelerated by the establishment of a new Infrastructure Regulatory Simplification Unit in Minister for Public Expenditure and Infrastructure Jack Chambers’s department.

· And the upcoming byelections in Dublin Central and Galway West, with seats vacated by Paschal Donohoe and Catherine Connolly respectively, are looking increasingly hard to call.
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Campaigner Maria Steen, whose failed bid to launch a run for the presidency last year put the spotlight on the nominations process, talks to Hugh and Ellen Coyne about that campaign. She talks about whether she could have won had she got that nomination and why not enough councils supported her.

She also talks about Catherine Connolly's first 100 days in office, why she is uncomfortable with the labels 'conservative' and 'right wing' and whether Catholicism is a hindrance to taking part in public life.
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Under this coalition Government Ireland's climate ambitions are colliding with political reality. Hugh talks to Climate and Science Correspondent Caroline O'Doherty about how the current Government is retreating from its own climate legislation even as energy-hungry data centres multiply, agricultural emissions remain stubbornly high and extreme weather batters the country. From Europe's looming fines to the politics of wind farms, “herd culling” and airport expansion, they look at why Ireland is falling far short of its legally-binding 2030 targets and what that means for the future.
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Jack Horgan-Jones and Pat Leahy join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

· The sharp criticism that greeted a review of allocation of special needs assistants in schools around the country prompted a hasty retreat by Government. The review has now been paused which should buy the Government some time to soothe tensions.

· The Government are yet to act on their own voiced concerns around under-16s using social media. The problems arising from children using these platforms has been thoroughly diagnosed, but what will actually be put in place to address them?

· Ireland’s only directly-elected mayor, Limerick mayor John Moran, is finding it difficult to achieve what he has set out to do in his role, and has questioned whether there is a strategy in place to “create sufficient pressure that I might simply walk away”.

· The International Protection Bill is quickly working its way through the Dáil to be in place by June, in time for the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum which will take effect then.

· And splashed across every front page on the planet this week was former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor who had been detained by police on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:

· A revolt against Microsoft in a small German state (which Hugh fully supports), doyen of the Irish business world Michael Smurfit, and the street sweepers who keep Dhaka in Bangladesh ticking over.
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13 months in, Donald Trump's second term is proving to be a much more radical political project than his first. On today's podcast Hugh is joined by Fintan O'Toole to talk about whether the Trump administration's ideology, use of state power and rhetoric now make comparisons with the fascism of the 20th century appropriate. What would fascism look like in today’s media, institutional and geopolitical context?
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