Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Democracy rests on the promise that political institutions should reflect the people they serve. But in an era of growing social diversity, persistent inequalities and political polarisation, that promise is being contested.

On today’s podcast, Hugh heads to the Royal Irish Academy to speak to Pauline Cullen, Professor of Sociology at Maynooth University and Tània Verge Mestre, former Equalities Minister in the Catalan government in Spain.

Verge Mestre highlights the gender quota’s introduced in Spain in 2007 requiring political parties to have no less than 40% of either gender represented in its candidates.

Cullen said “we have some of the most imaginative forms of governance across Europe”.

“When we think about diversity in an Irish context and we think about gender equality, migrant integration, or traveller rights, we silo them in different government departments and we give them different funding streams” she added.

“We don’t create the conditions to think about these things in a joined up way”.

So how can politics be more representative? And why is Ireland lagging behind international comparisons?

Presented by Hugh Linehan. Produced by Andrew McNair and JJ Vernon.
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Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

Thursday evening in Brussels saw much wrangling over the EU’s proposed €1.6tn budget. As holders of EU presidency, Ireland has a neutral dealmaker role to play - but as one of the net contributors to the pot, will Ireland benefit given the greater focus on security and defence spending?

Budget 2027 reaction has been pretty much unanimous, with many experts pointing to the precarious nature of the current corporation tax bonanza. But wielding all that cash can be difficult if nobody is certain how much the tax receipts will add up to month-to-month.

And two candidates have emerged ahead of next month’s Seanad byelection for the seat vacated by Fine Gael’s Seán Kyne. Academic and lawyer Maeve O’Rourke is planning to run as an independent, while former Lord Mayor of Dublin Ray McAdam will run as Fine Gael’s candidate. An electorate made up of TDs and senators will vote.
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Leinster House today was filled with sympathy for Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O’Donovan who took ill during an EU presidency meeting in Limerick on Tuesday.

On today’s podcast Hugh speaks to Irish Times political editor Pat Leahy and political correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones about the mood in the Dáil.

Fellow politicians “understand the stresses and challenges” of the job, Pat said.

They also discuss today’s public sector strike and the likelihood of another next Wednesday.

“Both sides have staked out their territory” said Pat.

“The government has shown its willing to let people go out on strike, the unions have shown their prepared to go on strike” he added.

Unions say the threat of larger scale walk outs in the dispute over the public sector pay deal aren’t off the table.

Jack Horgan-Jones said “generationally no one in politics or the unions has dealt with something of this scale before”.

He added, ”though we haven’t reached the point of confronting what a full scale public sector and civil service walk out would look like and the disruption it would cause”.
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In less than a month US voters will get a chance to express their feelings about the direction of the country in elections for seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. While president Donald Trump is not on the ballot, his unpopularity is weighing his party down. Polls show a "blue wave" looks likely, with Democrats favoured to win back the House and possibly the Senate. But many races are still very close. Washington correspondent Keith Duggan has been visiting some of the key battlegrounds to find out about the candidates and the issues.
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Pat Leahy and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

The fallout from Budget 2027 has been minimal, save for Minister for Media Patrick O’Donovan’s eleventh-hour decision to cut State subvention to RTÉ by €20 million. Having seen his department pre-budget demands not being met, the Minister warned that the Government – not just his department - “will renege on the three-year funding deal agreed with RTÉ in July 2024”.

Unlike O’Donovan, Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers saw his political capital augment this week. It took a giveaway budget of €8.5bn to avoid putting anyone’s nose seriously out of joint, but at least he kept to the 6 per cent spending margin for 2027.

Public sector pay demands will see industrial action rather than negotiations in the short-term but perhaps the Government and the unions will sit down and talk before both sides become entrenched.

And once lobbied by property developers like Johnny Ronan, former minister Simon Coveney now lobbies on his behalf. Ronan is redeveloping the former Irish Glass Bottle site in Ringsend with up to 3,800 apartments planned. Dublin City Council are now urging Coveney to honour affordable housing plans for the site, drawn up while he was housing minister.
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