Host Hugh Linehan is joined by Harry McGee and Jack Horgan-Jones to look back on the week in politics:
· The budget was somewhat overshadowed this week by stories with far less cost involved, but no shortage of outrage – not least the final cost of Government Buildings security hut hitting €1.4 million and the row over the announcement of new sports capital grant funding for local clubs.
· Sinn Féin’s alternative budget has many worthy pledges but is ultimately futile without the party’s hands actually being on the levers of power.
· And the controversy around a letter of congratulations President Michael D Higgins sent in July to Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian was reignited at a United Nations event in New York last Sunday.
Should Ireland go back to their old game plan against the French?
Come all ye faithful: Dublin’s Pro Cathedral celebrates Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent
Patrick Freyne: I feel we’re close now, Meghan, so I can speak freely. The right pitch is crucial in lifestyle hucksterism like yours
Finn McRedmond: Celebrities harping on about politics is bad. But it’s worse when they don’t
Plus, the panellists pick their favourite IT reads of the week:
· Michael McDowell on the Government’s advanced administrative sclerosis.
· Mark Hennesy wrote of former taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s contention that immigration numbers have risen too quickly here.
· And Mary Carolan’s piece on the use of ‘inappropriate’ slang and cultural references in a judgment concerning a Co Clare wind farm.
Produced by John Casey.
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