Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

The mood music around Leinster House this week is one of “nashing teeth” ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult budget announcement on Tuesday.

On today’s podcast, Hugh speaks to our political correspondents Jack Horgan-Jones and Cormac McQuinn who describe a “cold hard reality” that may be to come as government ministers feel they may not get the money they were hoping for.

And its understood Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has been “frosty” with cabinet colleagues asking for more money for their departments.

All this under the shadow of overrun budgets in education and health, and a failure to agree a public sector pay deal which threatens industrial action the likes of which we haven’t seen for 17 years.

We also ask how the row over an Orange Order parade permitted down the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in Co. Armagh lays bare the political divisions which have been “frozen in time” since the Belfast Agreement in 1998.

And we pay tribute to our esteemed colleague and parliamentary sketch writer Miriam Lord who retired this week.

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week; A shift to the right in European politics; Mark Zuckerbergs cash gift to a GAA club in Waterford; and the fallout over Ireland’s nations league clash against Israel.
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Sinn Fein emerged from 2020's general election in pole position to challenge Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and potentially take power next time around. That didn't happen, with support ebbing away as a series of events, both internal and external, shook the party's confidence. That's the picture painted by Siobhán Fenton, a journalist who worked in Sinn Féin's press office from 2020 to 2024, in her book Ourselves Alone.

Hugh interviews Siobhán about why she joined Sinn Fein and what she learned about the inner workings of a cross-border party. They look back on a series of missteps made by the party and its leader Mary Lou McDonald, including the response to the 2023 Dublin riot and McDonald's gaffe when speaking to Pat Leahy on Inside Politics about reducing the price of houses.
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Today anxiety over how the digital world has evolved is greater than ever. Trust in information found online is low, the business models driving tech platforms reward outrage over wellbeing and vast power lies in the hands of a few oligarchs. The arrival of AI may bring even greater problems. But what can be done?

On today's podcast Hugh interviews Mark Little about his book The Last Good Day on the Internet. Little is a former RTÉ correspondent, the founder of Storyful and co-founder with Aine Kerr of Kinzen. He has also had roles with Twitter and Spotify.

Part memoir, part work of philosophy, part rethinking of how the internet has developed over the last 20 years, Little's thoughtful book prescribes some solutions for our current predicaments.
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Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

In the first Irish Times national poll since February, the lack of movement in party support points to an electorate not wholly enamoured by the incumbent Government but not exactly enthused about the alternatives either.

One of the big contradictions arising from the poll is around the question of a united Ireland. A clear majority of 68 per cent feel the Government should begin preparations for possible Irish unity, but only a small minority of voters would consider changes such as a new Irish flag, national anthem or joining the Commonwealth to make a united Ireland more acceptable to northern unionists.

The poll also reveals what voters want in Budget 2027 – with the cost of energy and home heating the top priority ahead of next month’s budget.

And there is nothing like a premature sports capital grant announcement to stir animosity within the Coalition.

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping lands in Washington later this evening for a three-day state visit, his first to Washington since 2015. The Trump White House is rolling out the red carpet and laying on the full ceremonial treatment for a leader who currently still faces American tariffs, sanctions and export controls. Irish Times China correspondent Dennis Staunton joins Hugh from Hong Kong to explain what both men want out of the meeting and what it will tell us about the balance of power between the world's two superpowers. They also talk about the race for AI supremacy and China's economic challenges.
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