{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6155db9059a3fa00137f30a9/6a79ed115a90490c34e671a7?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"From boom to bust: how the PDs unravelled - Dessie Can Do It, part three","description":"<p>Hugh Linehan and Pat Leahy close their series on the PDs. In 1997 the party runs a disastrous campaign, falling from 10 seats to four. But they still enter government with Fianna Fáil, with Mary Harney their sole cabinet minister.</p><p><br></p><p>Their real influence comes through Charlie McCreevy, effectively a PD inside Fianna Fáil, whose close friendship with Harney drives a tax-cutting agenda during the boom years.</p><p>Facing wipeout in 2002, Michael McDowell rescues them with a Ranelagh lamppost stunt and an ingenious slogan. But the next term in government is less successful.</p><p><br></p><p>McDowell takes the leadership in 2006 just as the Mahon Tribunal investigates Bertie Ahern. Why does he choose to stay in coalition rather than pull the plug?</p><p><br></p><p>The 2007 election reduces the PDs to two seats. Does the party have another fightback in them?&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Finally Pat and Hugh deliver their verdict on the Progressive Democrats and ask where that centre-right energy now resides in the Irish political scene.&nbsp;</p>","author_name":"The Irish Times"}