Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan

Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh to look back on the week in politics:

• Next week Fianna Fáil will get the long-awaited review into the circumstances around Jim Gavin's disastrous presidential campaign. Has the wait taken the sting out of the issue for Micheal Martin?

• The Government is worried about political fallout if it fails to vote against the EU's Mercosur trade deal. It argues that any such vote could be purely symbolic

• Another thorny issue for the coalition: lengthy waiting lists for assessments of need, the process by which children with additional needs are assigned educational supports. The situation has long been untenable but the proposed solution is also controversial.

• Hugh addresses some of the many comments that have come in about Wednesday's interview with Eoin Lenihan.

• Minister Patrick O'Donovan wants Ireland to move ahead of the EU to restrict how younger teenagers access social media.

And finally the panel pick their favourite Irish Times journalism of the week.

The appearance of drones of unknown origin in Dublin last week around the time of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy's visit again highlighted the security challenges of the present day and Ireland's lack of capability to act in its own defence.

Neutrality remains a popular policy, as again demonstrated recently by the election of Catherine Connolly as president. That popularity does not answer the question of how much Ireland should invest in its own defence. Ireland diverges from other neutral European countries in our low defence spending and reliance on others for protection, information and security. But against those calling for bigger defence budgets, others warn of militarisation and point out the money could be better spent elsewhere.

So does being a voice for peace preclude greater defence spending, or is defence spending a crucial part of a viable neutrality? On today's podcast Hugh is joined by Naomi O'Leary to pick apart the elements of Ireland's approach to defence and neutrality, how we compare to others and what questions will arise as Ireland comes under increasing pressure in Europe to boost capabilities.

Terry Prone is a legend in Irish political communication. Her memoir, I’m Glad You Asked Me That, looks back at her remarkable career.

On today’s Inside Politics podcast, she talks to Hugh Linehan about the early days of political interviewing on TV, her experience of working with both Garret Fitzgerald and Charles Haughey, her ringside seat at some of the biggest political stories of the last four decades and what people don’t understand about the work she does.

I’m Glad You Asked Me That: The Political Years is published by Red Stripe