Plus, a difficult budget run-in and Keir Starmer says no border poll

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Former taoiseach Enda Kenny and minister for public expenditure Brendan Howlin. Photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times.
Former taoiseach Enda Kenny and minister for public expenditure Brendan Howlin. Photograph: Eric Luke / The Irish Times.

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

  • If recent years are anything to go by, most Budget 2024 measures will have been leaked by next Tuesday. The fact they haven’t been leaked yet shows how difficult negotiations are this year, with Ministers in a last-ditch contest for cash to spend on their departments and pet projects.
  • Labour TD for Wexford Brendan Howlin announced he will retire at the next election. The former party leader and minister for public expenditure gave Cormac McQuinn his parting views on his own career, including his role in post-crash austerity, and on the vitriolic state of today’s politics, calling social media ‘a jungle in essence’.
  • UK Labour leader Keir Starmer cast doubt on the prospect of a vote on reunification, should he succeed in becoming Prime Minister.

Plus our panellists pick their favourite Irish Times journalism from this week: