The coalition Government still has plenty of time to run but, if the past week is anything to go by, the remaining months could be characterised by less cooperation and more shaping up for the electoral battles to come.

On today’s Inside Politics podcast, Pat Leahy and Hugh Linehan take a listen back to an interview The Irish Times conducted with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Thursday in which a picture emerged of how Fine Gael will differentiate itself from its coalition partners at election time.

In the interview the Taoiseach talks about a controversy over three Fine Gael junior ministers’ decision to publicly call for a tax cut in the next budget, why Fine Gael supports lowering taxes for those on middle and upper incomes, why boosting the numbers of homes available to purchase is his housing priority, and how a decision will be made on the timing of the next general election.

Mr Varadkar spoke about other subjects - you can read the full interview here.