Irish Times Inside Politics

This week The Irish Times ran its "Summer Nights" online festival, featuring conversations with guests like Samantha Power, Anne Enright, Imelda May, Paul O'Connell, Dermot Bannon and David McWilliams. As part of the festival, the politics team got together to discuss, well a lot of things really. They started with what's been another horrible week for new Taoiseach Micheál Martin. How much harm has the Barry Cowen controversy done to his leadership?The Irish Times Summer Nights festival is sponsored by Peugeot. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

President Donald Trump is clearly behind in the polls, but is it too late for him to claw it back? What kind of campaigns will he and his rival Joe Biden need to run to secure victory? To talk about the 2020 race Hugh is joined by columnist Fintan O'Toole and Washington correspondent Suzanne Lynch. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Micheál Martin took hist first leaders' questions as Taoiseach this week, however much of the focus was on Agriculture Minister Barry Cowen and his drink driving apology. Jen Bray has the latest developments from the Dáil. Economics columnist Cliff Taylor and Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary join Pat Leahy to discuss the EU’s path to economic recovery from the impact of Covid-19. Plus, a potential new position this week for Paschal Donohue? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Brexit is still going and is still as infuriating as ever. With Britain now locked into a complete and final exit from the EU at the end of the year, London editor Denis Staunton updates us on the slow progress being made in negotiations on the future trade relationship, and helps us understand Boris Johnson's position. But first, Jennifer Bray recaps a fairly miserable week for the new leadership of both the Government and the opposition. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Academic and political analyst Kevin Cunningham joins Pat and Fiach to talk about the first week of the new coalition, new analysis of the source of Sinn Féin's support in #GE2020 and the difficult next stage in dealing with Covid-19. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have voted overwhelmingly to enter into government together . Pat Leahy is joined by Jennifer Bray, Harry McGee and Fiach Kelly to discuss this historic three-party coalition. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Masha Gessen is a Russian-American author, activist and journalist. In their new book, Surviving Autocracy, Gessen provides a punchy and persuasive analysis of the destruction the Trump administration has waged on US institutions, culture and sense of identity. In this episode, the author speaks to Hugh Linehan about the parallels between the US and Russia under Putin. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan joins Hugh Linehan and Irish Times political correspondent Harry McGee to discuss yesterday’s marathon Green Party convention, the divisions amongst party members and the outlook for the new programme for government. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What's in the FF-FG-Green programme for government, how is it going down with the grassroots, and what about that Irish Times / Ipsos-MRBI poll? Discussing it all are Pat, Fiach and Jen with host Hugh Linehan. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

First Harry McGee and Mary Minihan talk about the sticking points in negotiations between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to form a government, and a bit of Green Party history that casts light on the awkward phase it is going through. In part two, academic Liam Thornton joins in to discuss the fate of Direct Provision. The ending of the controversial system for dealing with those applying for asylum now seems all but certain. How did it come to this, and what comes next? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ireland is about to enter the next phase of the roadmap out of lockdown. 'Phase two plus' as coined by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar earlier today. Pat Leahy and Fiach Kelly speak to Hugh Linehan about the accelerated lifting of restrictions and discuss where we stand on this long and winding road to government formation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The size of the #BlackLivesMatter demonstration in Dublin at the weekend took some by surprise, but it shouldn't have. Musician Sallay Garnett, also known as Loah, who has recently spoken out about her experience of racism in Ireland on social media, joins Irish Times journalists Fintan O'Toole and Sorcha Pollak to talk about the source of the energy behind the protest and whether Ireland is embarking on a reckoning with its own racism. After that: Washington correspondent Suzanne Lynch on the political gamble Donald Trump is taking with his hardline approach to protests over the killing by police of unarmed black man George Floyd in Minneapolis. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Robert Reich is an economist, professor, author, and political commentator who served as Secretary of Labour in the Clinton administration. Hugh talks to Robert about American society today, his contention that the US has become an oligarchy serving a select few, and how Donald Trump is a symptom of this decline.His latest book "The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix" It is out now. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

London editor Denis Staunton joins Hugh, Fiach and Jennifer to talk about the gripping story that has dominated UK politics for many straight days: Dominic Cummings' road trip (20.34). But first on today's podcast the team look at our own lockdown etiquette mini-scandal involving Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, revelations at the Covid committee hearings on the state's assistance to nursing homes at the start of the outbreak and those slow-moving government formation talks. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"Once taboos are broken, it's quite hard to reinstate them".A German court ruling challenging the primacy of European Court of Justice in EU matters poses a threat to the EU that even it can't fudge. The case hinged on the right of the European Central Bank to engage in bond-buying to support the EU economy. The top German court has ruled that the ECB hasn't sufficiently explained why the measures are necessary. But more importantly, it also ruled that its view is supreme over the ruling of the top European court, the ECJ. Among other problems, this could undermine attempts to rein in member states like Poland and Hungary that are challenging the EU's political norms. To explain how the ruling does this and why it matters, Hugh talks to Ronan McCrea, professor of constitutional and European law at University College London. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A move to challenge Eamon Ryan as Green leader is under way among a cohort within the party, with deputy leader Catherine Martin being urged to stand against him. That's the first topic on today's podcast with Irish Times politics team Pat Leahy, Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee which also takes in government formation talks, a strange spat between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, the first hearing of the Covid-19 committee and how politics will handle the pressure to return public life to normality. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It's been a difficult path for Eamon Ryan and the Green Party since the dark period following 2011, when the party lost all its seats and state funding. His stewardship of the party has earned him respect, particularly among the old guard. But do the fast-growing Greens' new recruits give him the same credit? Fiach Kelly writes about Ryan in this weekend's edition of The Irish Times and here he talks to Hugh about Ryan's leadership style and his party's difficult return to the government negotiating table. They also talk about how a relationship between the Greens, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael might work.This weekend's edition of The Irish Times features a series of articles about Green politics. You can read them all on irishtimes.com - or pick up a copy of the paper in your local newsagent. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Different countries are taking different approaches at different speeds as they move to reopen their economies. London Editor Denis Staunton and Berlin Correspondent Derek Scally talk to Hugh Linehan about the politics of pandemic in the UK and Germany respectively. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

As Ireland moves into the next, more complex phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, how can we hold the authorities to account? Is the current government being transparent enough about the decisions it is making and the rationale which underpins them? What happens when a new government is finally formed? And how well is the media covering the crisis? Hugh Linehan talks to columnist Fintan O’Toole and political editor Pat Leahy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Green Party has demanded that any government it joins implements cuts of 7 per cent each year to our national carbon emissions. Where does that figure come from, and is it achievable? We ask climate researcher Hannah Daly. Then Fiach Kelly explains how the overtures from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are going down with the Greens, and what we know about plans to ease the Coronavirus lockdown.Dr Hannah Daly lectures in energy systems modelling at University College Cork. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.