Plus it's Guillotine season in Leinster House

Listen | 43:46
Clare Daly at the launch of her failed bid for reelection to the European Parliament in May. Can she take a Dáil seat in Dublin Central? Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times
Clare Daly at the launch of her failed bid for reelection to the European Parliament in May. Can she take a Dáil seat in Dublin Central? Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Times

Jennifer Bray and Harry McGee join Hugh to discuss the week in politics:

  • The Government is completing what it can of its unfinished legislative programme before the general election, and that means the ‘guillotine’ - a procedure that shortens the time needed to debate bills as they pass through the Oireachtas - is getting heavy use this week. Which bills are getting chopped - and which are getting dropped?
  • Clare Daly’s decision to run in Dublin Central adds another colourful and effective political character to the mix in that constituency. But with so many independents in contention around the country, the 34th Dáil is likely to be diverse.
  • Jennifer calls out Hugh’s obsession with Seanad reform. Is there some Seanad-related trauma deep in Hugh’s past?

Plus they pick their Irish Times articles of the week:

On-the-ground coverage from the US by Keith Duggan and Steven Carroll who are meeting voters and surveying swing states as the historically close US election draws near

Patrick Freyne’s review of a steamy Jilly Cooper TV adaptation

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