Inside Politics

Jennifer Bray and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to discuss the week in politics, including the annual migration of Ministers to foreign lands for St Patrick's Day. But with the crisis in Gaza on many Irish voters' minds, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has a balancing act in how he raises the issue with President Joe Biden.

Also on the agenda: More fallout from the recent referendums, and how housing asylum seekers will be an issue in local election campaigns...

Last weekend's referendum defeats have jolted the political establishment. How could all major parties and many other players have got it so badly wrong - and does the failure reveal something deeper going on?

To discuss this, Hugh is joined by Jack Horgan Jones, Theresa Reidy and Jane Suiter...

Although counting is still underway in the family and care referendums, the Government has already admitted defeat, with a No-No result looking like the only outcome.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the result as two wallops for Government, while Tánaiste Micheál Martin, said there is “no single reason” why the proposals were rejected, and a time for reflection will ensue...

Pat Leahy and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

There were some interesting developments during the European People's Party (EPP) congress in Bucharest this week – Ursula von der Leyen was roundly endorsed for another five years as European Commission President, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told delegates that Europe was no longer in a ‘post-war epoch’ and that borders had to be defended...

Farmer protest movements are becoming an increasingly important part of the political landscape across Europe, from Poland, where they have been spurred by the lifting of tariffs on Ukrainian agricultural produce, to the Netherlands, where Government plans to cut nitrogen emissions have led to the rise of a significant new party, and most recently to Germany, where a threat to cut agricultural fuel subsidies has caused a furious reaction...

Plus, Sinn Féin flip-flopping on climate change

Political scientist Theresa Reidy and political correspondent Harry McGee join Hugh to look ahead to June's European elections, when voters in Ireland and across the EU will pick their Members of the European Parliament. Since the last election in 2019, the electoral map has changed, as has much else in Irish and European politics...

RTÉ board chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh resigned after Minister's Prime Time appearance

Dan McLaughlin reports from Kyiv

Hugh talks to the leaders of An Coimisiún Toghcháin