For a look at the Sunday papers, Shane was joined by Social Democrats TD Roisín Shortall, Fianna Fáil candidate for Dublin Bay South Jim O’Callaghan, and NUI Galway law lecturer Larry Donnelly.
Today’s discussion kicked off with the story in today’s Sunday Independent report that Fine Gael deputy leader James Reilly feared he would be sacked after taking on the Taoiseach over the issue of a potential abortion referendum.
Deputy Shortall said, “the first thing I’d say about the papers recently and that story in particular, from now on and up to the election in February, we need to view everything with a large dose of skepticism. There’s a huge amount of spin going on, and very little analysis.
“People who are under pressure politically for the election are going to promote themselves… [James Reilly] is under pressure in Dublin North,” she added. “Last week was a really bad week for James Reilly. He should have been excoriated in the Sunday papers… and suddenly the subject is changed”.
Jim O’Callaghan said, “like many Irish people I’d nearly forgotten that James Reilly was a minister. He’s one of the quietest ministers in Government.
“I have to say in my opinion it’s more about internal Fine Gael politics than anything else… I think a lot of this is quite cynical,” he suggested.
On the wider subject of an abortion referendum, Deputy Shortall observed that any referendum "will only be carried if the legislation to replace it actually meets the middle-ground view”.
Jim suggested “I think this is a much more complicated matter than the gay marriage referendum… There’s an assumption that everyone who voted yes for marriage equality will in some ways be pro-choice - that isn’t the case”.
Larry agreed, saying he is coming at this from an angle where he has been arguing against the way the whip system operates in Ireland.
“An issue like abortion, the quintessential issue of conscience... a party dictate should not tell people how to vote… It’s too important to say you have to vote a certain way,” he argued.
Some of the other stories included in this week’s paper review included the reports that November's tax receipts are expected to be ‘out of this world’, and some allegations of internal Labour party trouble involving Alan Kelly.
“In terms of politicians I find it hard to recall one that seems to be as disliked by so many people as Alan Kelly seems to be,” Larry observed. “This certainly will not help his standing one bit”.
Deputy Shortall added that “I don’t know him particularly well… But I don’t like the kind of ‘crony’ politics he’s engaged in. I think that is fair.
“We were promised new politics. We were promised a transparent way of doing things. This is old-style politics again”.
You can listen back to the full paper review below:
