Economist and author Sinéad O’Sullivan ruffled some feathers recently with her analysis of Ireland’s deficits in infrastructure and services. Her critiques of the State’s failure to deliver things that are taken for granted in other similarly wealthy countries sparked debate and drew pushback from figures including former taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

On today’s Inside Politics podcast she talks to Hugh Linehan about how her professional background in designing complex systems made it “impossible for me not to see” the flaws she identifies in the Irish model. She argues that Ireland lacks strong institutions capable of separating long-term delivery from electoral politics, resulting in costly, short-term fixes.