Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Inside Politics Live is coming to Cork on September 30th. Get your tickets here.

Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

Labour’s annual think-in is happening in Galway and Pat is there to find out what the party is thinking up. The mood is positive. But with the rival Soc Dems riding high, Labour faces an uncertain future.

One new measure being proposed by party finance spokesman Ged Nash is a €100 “shopping supplement” targeted at families over the winter months. Expect many more such proposals between now and Budget Day.

Ireland’s skies and seas are being monitored by France and the UK while we hold the EU presidency. The Triple Lock, with legislation due to move through the Dáil, is a more pressing political issue - but the question of our meagre defence budget is another that will not go away.

We still don’t have much detail on US president Donald Trump’s imminent visit to Dublin, but it seems the majority of his time will be spent at Trump Doonbeg or within the confines of the Phoenix Park. Opportunities for diplomacy may be limited by the fact that the trip is largely a US-taxpayer-funded marketing exercise for a golf course. But there are still risks and opportunities.

Across the Irish Sea a Channel 4 News sting has exposed senior Reform UK officers allegedly scheming to get around campaign finance laws. The report dropped just in time to spoil the party’s conference and will add to the existing whiff of financial scandal around Nigel Farage’s political project. How much did Farage himself know and what impact will it have?

Plus the panel pick their favourite Irish Times stories of the week.
Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global Briefing newsletter here: irishtimes.com/newsletters/global-briefing/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In his new novel A Nation Once Again, Paul Howard, best known for the Ross O'Carroll Kelly series, turns his satirical eye from wealthy South Dublin to an imaginary government department devoted to preparing for the reunification of Ireland. He talks to Hugh about how the concept allowed him to explore both the absurdity of the border's existence and the ridiculousness of trying to remove it

They discuss the book’s origins as a sitcom, how his experience as a child in Ireland with an English accent (Howard's family returned to Ireland when he was eight) helped him develop an ear for phonetic quirks and why Ireland's Call may be the perfect anthem for a United Ireland.
Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global Briefing newsletter here: irishtimes.com/newsletters/global-briefing/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hugh, Pat, Ellen and Jack took to the stage at Electric Picnic on Saturday to discuss politics and take some uestions from the audience. They discussed UK prime minister Andy Burnham's controversial comments on the possibility of a border poll before moving on to take stock of the political positions and futures of the Big Three party leaders: Taoiseach Micheal Martin, Minister for Finance Simon Harris and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. Here's an excerpt of their conversation.

Thanks to Electric Picnic and MindField for having us.
Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global Briefing newsletter here: irishtimes.com/newsletters/global-briefing/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ellen Coyne and Jack Power join Pat Leahy to look back on the week in politics:

· All 27 EU foreign ministers will gather in Druids Glen in Wicklow next week for a “Gymnich” meeting. What is that you ask, it is characterised as a more informal chat with no expectation of any hard decisions being made. The lull of August will now give way to a hectic calendar culminating in difficult choices around the next seven-year EU budget.

· Andy Burnham made his first visit to Northern Ireland this week as UK prime minister. He raised eyebrows with his assertion that a Border poll is “off the table”. This won’t please Sinn Féin given the money and energy they are putting into making a vote on a united Ireland a reality.

· The Dáil sat briefly on Friday, where, among other topics of debate, it decided to vote against fuel price increases. The Government now further defers clawing back the cuts in excise taxes it announced earlier in the summer for two more months. Can it continue to shield the public from increasing fuel costs beyond November?

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

· The unifying power of the late Dolly Parton, Scouting Ireland’s future, and CIA chief visits Moscow to urge a Ukraine war deal.
Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global Briefing newsletter here: irishtimes.com/newsletters/global-briefing/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Inside Politics Live is coming to Cork on September 30th. Get your tickets here.

Pat Leahy is joined by Ellen Coyne and Liz Carolan to talk about the response to the circumstances around the recent fatal M9 motorway crash. They examine Coimisiún na Meán’s response and the powers it has under the EU Digital Services Act, and the refusal of Tiktok to appear before a Dail committee. They consider proposals like making joyriding videos illegal and weigh up concerns about free speech and enforceability.

In part two: the Government has u-turned on whether to pay for Skyclarys, a drug that treats Friedreich's ataxia, a rare neurodegenerative disease. Why did it take so long?

Liz Carolan is a journalist, author and consultant. She writes The Briefing, a newsletter about technology and politics.
Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global Briefing newsletter here: irishtimes.com/newsletters/global-briefing/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.