Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

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When Labour came to power in 2011 Ireland was in the depths of an economic crisis that had several more years to run. Their coalition with Fine Gael spent the next five years struggling to fix the economy while satisfying the EU and the IMF, who had bailed us out.

But it was Labour, led by Eamon Gilmore to its greatest ever number of seats in that election, who bore the brunt of voter frustration over the deep cutsLinehanx increases that the government then imposed. The party was decimated in the next election and voters, particularly of the working class, never fully trusted the party again.

So why did Labour get the blame? Could Gilmore and Joan Burton, who succeeded him in 2014, have done things differently? In this series Pat Leahy and Hugh Linehan relive the fateful events and decisions of that era and, a decade on, take a fresh look back at Labour’s collapse.

In episode one they look at Eamon Gilmore, how Labour fought the 2011 election, the formation of the coalition with Fine Gael, how one of Labour’s key promises to voters was abandoned without a fight, and how the seeds of future trouble were sown with Labour's top brass taking on some of the trickiest ministries.
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Oliver Sears, founder of Holocaust Awareness Ireland, joins Hugh to talk about his growing alarm at the rise of anti-Semitism in Ireland and what he sees as the failure to take it seriously. They discuss whether the political response to Israel's actions since October 7th 2023 has complicated that debate.

The conversation covers questions such as where legitimate criticism of Israel ends and anti-Semitism begins, whether anti-Zionism can be distinguished from antisemitism, and what Ireland's institutions should be doing differently.
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This week the Government decided to unveil a €250 million package to help citizens meet the elevated cost of fuel. And this could be just the start of a series of new efforts to keep down the cost of living. After ending such supports in the last Budget, it seems there is a limit to the Government’s ability to resist helping when times get tough and the money is there. But what will happen when a crisis coincides with tougher fiscal times?

The renewed threat of inflation is having an impact across the economic and political landscape. Inflation means unpredictable costs and that is especially bad for one key area.

Other Government departments will be asked to bail out the Department of Education, which is facing another large budget overspend this year. Will this request brew inter-departmental strife?

Our population is growing and our constitution stipulates there should be at least one TD for every 30,000 people. Should that rule be changed before we end up with excessive numbers of Deputies? Maybe - but a referendum on the issue is unlikely under this Government.

Plus the panel pick their favourite Irish Times articles of the week, including Newton Emerson on an issue uniting left and right in Belfast, Big Tech’s Big Tobacco moment and Malachy Clerkin’s report on Ireland’s heartbreaking loss against Czech Republic.
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Seán Lemass is remembered as the man who changed Ireland.

Several opinion polls have noted Lemass as the country's most admired taoiseach.

He never left any papers of autobiography, but rather twenty-two hours of private interviews.

Hugh speaks to Irish Times reporter Ronan McGreevy who has gathered these lost interviews and collated them into a memoir in Lemass's own words.

Produced by JJ Vernon and Andrew McNair.
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Eoin Drea is a senior researcher at the Wilfried Martens Centre, the official think tank of the European People’s Party (of which Fine Gael is a member), and an occasional contributor to the opinion pages of The Irish Times, where he is often critical of Ireland’s approach to Europe.

Recently he wrote that “Ireland’s recent hissy fit at not being invited to a pre-EU summit meeting in Belgium speaks volumes as to where Dublin ranks in the minds of our fellow EU members”.

On today’s podcast he talks to Hugh about how Ireland’s influence in Europe has declined, why he believes Ireland’s political discourse around Europe is naive and lacking strategic depth and what “two-speed” EU development could look like - with or without Ireland as a key player. He also talks about how Ireland is viewed as being "in the pocket of the US multinationals".
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