Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:·       The floods brought by Storm Chandra earlier this week devastated eastern parts of the country, and once again exposed our lack of preparation for extreme weather events. The painfully slow delivery of flood defence infrastructure will be highlighted repeatedly as climate change makes such weather events more common.·       Some of the biggest developers in the State are unhappy with the rental reforms scheduled to be introduced on March 1st. They view them as unconstitutional and have threatened legal action against the Government if they fail to engage with them on it.·       And the death of 16-year-old Grace Lynch, hit by a scrambler motorbike on a pedestrian crossing on the Ratoath Road last Sunday, shows the urgent need for proper enforcement of laws to stop illegal use of scramblers in urban areas of the country.Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:·       US composer Philip Glass upsets Donald Trump, why not all rankings are worth paying attention to, and the mega success of K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Legislation to reform Ireland's residential property rental landscape is being fast-tracked through the Dáil. What impact will it have? On security of tenure, we will now have some of the most robust protections for renters in Europe. But rents are likely to become even more unaffordable, says Michael Byrne, a lecturer at UCD's School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice.Hugh and Jack are joined by Michael to talk about how the legislation will change the landscape for renters. They also talk about the ideas in Michael's new book, Beyond Generation Rent, and the radical changes that are happening in Ireland's housing market, from the growing proportion of institutional landlords to the massive investment in social housing.

Ellen Coyne and Pat Leahy join Jack Horgan-Jones to look back on the week in politics:·       This week saw EU-US relations shift as the near-confrontation over Greenland perhaps showed the best way to handle US President Donald Trump’s demand to take over the Arctic island. The decision by Trump to withdraw the threat of tariffs against eight European countries opposing his plan for Greenland represents a rare climbdown.·       Bord Bia chairman Larrry Murrin faced calls from Sinn Féin and the Irish Farmers’ Association for his resignation this week amid a controversy over his company Dawn Farms importing Brazilian beef.·       The proposed reforms to the national rent control system due to come into effect on March 1st might be a hard sell for Government due to rent increases and evictions that may arise from the changes.·       And former Fianna Fáil senator and MEP Brian Crowley has passed away at the age of 61. A native of Bandon, Co. Cork, topped the poll in every European election he contested – in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009 and in 2014 – and was a well-liked figure both inside and outside Fianna Fáil.Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:·       Emer McLysaght on the joy and hidden challenges of living alone, the disappearance of former New York Giant Sam Beale, and the upcoming Six Nations Championship.

Jack Power and Jack Horgan-Jones join Pat Leahy to assess a dramatic week in which the transatlantic alliance took a further battering from US president Donald Trump and his demands to acquire Greenland. After Trump used a rambling address at Davos to reveal he would not use force but would 'remember' a failure to hand the vast territory over, EU leaders may now wait and see. Will threatened tariffs become a reality? There are two member state heads in particular whose response to whatever Trump does next should be watched.

Harry McGee, Ellen Coyne and Mark Paul join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:·       The Minister with responsibility for artificial intelligence (AI), Niamh Smyth, met with executives from social media company X on Friday over concerns about their Grok app. The app has been in the headlines because of its ability to produce non-consensual intimate images. Current law bans sharing of intimate images but does not appear to criminalise generating them – what is the Government’s next step?·       The level of energy needed to power a data centre was laid bare this week. An internal Government document showed that a single facility in west Dublin consumes 10 times the electricity of a nearby pharmaceutical plant employing 2,000 people, equivalent to enough power for 200,000 homes.·       And more ‘psychodrama’ for the Tories this week as Robert Jenrick, the Conservative shadow justice secretary, defected to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK after being sacked from the Conservative shadow cabinet.Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:·       The US and Denmark battle for control of Greenland, Inside Politics veteran Jennifer Bray is releasing a book (and it’s rather good), a reader’s letter questions how dog-friendly we should be as a society, and who is next for Donald Trump’s crosshairs?

Despite global turmoil, the focus of Irish politics in 2026 is set to remain on matters close to home. Pat Leahy and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to identify the main challenges facing the Government this year, particularly those on the desks of Minister for Housing James Brown, Minister for Transport Darragh O'Brien and Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, and how global events could impinge on those domestic affairs.

US president Donald Trump wants to acquire Greenland, asserting strategic and security needs but also a 'psychological need' to take over the vast, frozen island from Denmark. So how do Greenlanders themselves feel about this idea? Derek Scally is in Greenland's capital Nuuk to find out. He talks to Hugh Linehan about a people whose passion for total independence may have been catalysed by Trump's covetousness.

Jack Horgan-Jones and Ellen Coyne join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:·       The long-anticipated EU-Mercosur trade deal was provisionally approved on Friday, despite the opposition of Ireland, France and three other countries. The deal has been immensely unpopular in Irish political life for a long time, thanks largely to efforts by the farming lobby. But there is now a sense that some figures in the European Commission are disappointed the Government did not make the case for the economic upsides of the deal. ·       Taoiseach Micheál Martin was in China this week on a four-day visit. Trade was also high on the agenda there, with China eager to import more high-quality food from Ireland. Human rights were mentioned in passing, and there was condemnation by the Taoiseach of Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime in Venezuela, the irony seemingly lost on the Fianna Fáil leader given the country he was visiting.·       And the Taoiseach’s party colleague, Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless, wants to ditch the one-bed en suites as the Government looks to move towards a co-living model involving communal space for university accommodation. A bathroom of one’s own is a luxury students can go without. Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:·       The Saipan film reopens old wounds for Kevin Kilbane, Seán Moncrieff can’t throw away all those old electronic cables, and boycotting Doonbeg is the least we can do to oppose Donald Trump’s appetite for war.

After the weekend’s US airstrikes on Venezuela, and arrest of its president Nicolás Maduro by US special forces, The Irish Times’ China Correspondent Denis Staunton has been pondering what it means for the international order, and territorial disputes around the world.“Events in Venezuela have emboldened Trump and we’ve seen him step up his rhetoric around Greenland” he told the Inside Politics podcast.Donald Trump has held no punches in expressing his desire for the US to take over Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.On Sunday, the US president told reporters Washington needed Greenland for “national security” with White House officials suggesting military operations to achieve it aren’t off the table.Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen said: “If the United States were to choose to attack another Nato country, then everything would come to an end”.And in the Irish Times’ Global Briefing newsletter, Denis writes “If the past year is anything to go by, there is no reason to believe that Europe will put up any kind of fight, military or otherwise”.What other dominos at play within the international order could fall in the wake of Trump’s arrest of Nicolás Maduro?Inside Politics is presented by Hugh Linehan and produced by Declan Conlon, with JJ Vernon on sound.