The Candidate

The Dáil has risen, Leinster House is quiet, and TDs are all off doing constituency work (as they tell us every year), so it's time for our political awards. Christine Bohan, Jane Matthews and Sinéad O'Carroll analyse Christina Finn's report card naming the winners and losers of the term just gone: why Jennifer Carroll MacNeill won the term by picking fights with everyone from the Rotunda to BAM, whether Jim O'Callaghan really belongs on the losers' list, and how Holly Cairns turned the Social Democrats into the party with a buzz about them.

Nigel Farage resigned as an MP on Tuesday to trigger a byelection in which he's going to run in, and waited for the establishment to line up against him. They didn't. A handful of minor parties have put their names forward, but the candidate getting all the headlines is Count Binface, an Oxford graduate in a bin costume who has previously stood against Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Theresa May. It would be funny if there wasn't so much riding on it (and even at that... it is still pretty funny).Christine Bohan, Christina Finn and Sinéad O'Carroll dig into why the stunt hasn't gone to plan, why the five million pound "unconditional gift" is following Farage around, and what a Reform UK prime minister would mean for Ireland.

Housing Minister James Browne has announced the biggest shake-up to rural planning rules in two decades. It should be easier for people to build homes in the countryside, but there's no target for how many new homes this will deliver and no new transport or services to go with it. These changes were "imminent" in 2021. Now, five years and one Green Party exit later, here they are.Christine Bohan, Jane Matthews and Rónán Duffy ask whether this is real policy or vibes-based housing.Also: Ireland took over the EU Council presidency this week and most of the country barely noticed. The ceremony at Dublin Castle was lovely but it was Zelensky who made the headlines.

An Oireachtas committee spent years researching drug policy in Ireland and came back with a clear recommendation: decriminalise possession of all drugs for personal use, a shift from treating drug use as a criminal justice issue to treating it as a health one. The committee was cross-party and had extensive evidence to draw from. The government's response? Lukewarm at best.Christine Bohan, Jane Matthews and Rónán Duffy unpack what could be next for this proposal - and also the Citizens Assembly process that it originated from.Also: the parking crisis in new housing estates is making people's lives miserable.

Something unusual happened in the Dáil this week when a Sinn Féin proposal to scrap the three-day waiting period for abortion passed. An opposition bill getting through is rare enough, but this one came with a free vote that split the government parties wide open. Micheál Martin and Simon Harris both voted in favour. Most of their TDs voted against. Senior ministers like Jim O'Callaghan, Norma Foley and James Browne all voted no (and said nothing during the debate before doing so).Christine Bohan, Jane Matthews, Christina Finn and Rónán Duffy unpack how a waiting period that was never recommended by the Citizens' Assembly or the Oireachtas committee survived for eight years, and whether scrapping it is the beginning of a bigger conversation about abortion legislation the government doesn't want to have.Also: Ireland is getting a derelict property tax. Again. The government announced it in October's budget and announced it again this week. They love doing that.

The Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris joins us in studio for a sit-down interview. We asked him why a man on a doorstep in Dublin Central called him the minister for press releases, about how Ireland is a country that's never been richer but has never felt poorer, and what his guiding philosophy is as finance ministerHe told Christine Bohan, Christina Finn and Jane Matthews that childcare at €200 a month is "entirely doable", that the tax system is "screwing people", and that there will be no stamp duty relief for first-time buyers.Harris also spoke about the online abuse that nearly drove him out of politics, describing the "bomb that goes off in your home" when someone threatens to kill your children.

When Michael Healy-Rae resigned as minister in April, he walked out of the Dáil, put his fist in the air outside the gates, and told reporters he was standing with the people of Kerry. This week, he told a different story, that it was his brother Danny's surprise interview calling on the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to resign that cost him his job. Two versions, two months apart... and Michael somehow making both of them work for him.Christine Bohan, Christina Finn and Jane Matthews unpack the most public split in the Healy-Rae dynasty, and ask whether this is really about what happened in April, or about what comes next.Also: consultants at the Rotunda are seeing private patients despite being on public-only contracts, and the government isn't happy.

Byelection fallout continues for Sinn Féin as Labour says Mary Lou's party is left-wing no more. And while Holly Cairns says a left-wing government is within 'touching distance', the question being asked now is just how big could the Social Democrats get and could they end up eating everyone's lunch? Aside from the opposition benches, the government is in a spin over its climate targets.