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An enormous post budget row has erupted between the government and RTE over a shortfall in funding for the broadcaster agreed in this week’s budget. A solicitor known for establishing the Co Laois music festival, Forest Fest, has been suspended from legal practice by the High Court. Security concerns for Jewish people in Ireland have prevented Dublin’s primary synagogue from organising a public-facing memorial to mark the October 7th attacks. In her tech column today, Ciara O’Brien is making the case for removing the phrase “we didn’t mean it” from tech companies’ book of excuses when it comes to deep fakes. Patrick Freyne is writing about a “new rich-person documentary.” The Beckhams were the patients zero of the celebumentary. Now it’s the turn of Wayne and Coleen Rooney. Presented by Aideen Finnegan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Government has unveiled an €8.5 billion Budget package bringing public spending to a record €125.6 billion next year. Tighter spending controls on policing major events after a review of the policing operation around last year’s Europa League final in Dublin, Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly is expected to tell an Oireachtas committee. A workplace dispute involving HIV Ireland has heard evidence about tensions within the charity and a decision to withdraw from a major HSE awareness campaign. Swimmers in Lough Derg talk of skin irritation and respiratory problems from blue-green algae. Presented by Andrew McNair Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Government will unveil another giveaway budget today, Tuesday October 6th, which will include reductions in tax for middle income earners worth up to €1,500 for a couple with a combined income of €100,000. “Drumcree is the theatre of the absurd, straight from Monty Python’s Ministry of silly walks,” according to Fintan O’Toole, who’s column this week focuses on the eruption of sectarian tension in Portadown. As a new legal term begins in the Irish courts this week, Hugh Linehan is contrasting the reporting restrictions which apply to criminal cases here with those in the United States; as America grapples with the alleged gang rape of a woman at Cornell University in upstate New York. Tributes are being paid to a Trinity College professor and oesophageal cancer surgeon at St. James’ Hospital in Dublin as he marks his retirement from the university. John Reynolds has been at the forefront of medical advances in Ireland which have led to a doubling of overall survival for the 500 plus people diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in the Republic each year. Presented by Aideen Finnegan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Irish drug gangs are now making as much money from cannabis as they are from cocaine, according to new Gardaí figures. Housing, energy costs and childcare are among the main concerns people have been voicing ahead of Budget 2027. Ireland’s borrowing costs are a fraction of bigger economies like France, the UK and the United States. Garvaghy Road residents are in court today as the dispute over an Orange Order parade at Drumcree. The latest delays to Ireland’s national children’s hospital are carrying a growing cost for patients waiting to use the new facility, new correspondence reveals. Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The opposition parties have laid out their alternative budgets ahead of the government’s Budget 2027 next week. Grinds 360, Ireland’s biggest online education platform, was plunged into a boardroom battle after its CEO was temporarily suspended in a dispute over company finances and governance. Next week, the European Union and China head into what could be one of their most consequential trade showdowns in years. Domestic rugby falls far behind the financial viability of the international game, but what can fix it? Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An American conservative Catholic university, founded by Domino’s Pizza billionaire Tom Monaghan, is facing questions over plans to open an Irish campus at the former Mount Melleray monastery in Co. Waterford. Irish unification stirs widespread debate but the decision for a vote on the matter falls to one person under the Belfast Agreement; Northern Ireland’s secretary of state. Rachel Lavin examines what metrics might be used to judge whether to trigger a border poll. A law intended to protect rape complainants from being quizzed about their sexual history is “not working”, with almost one in four complainants facing such inquiries last year, Rape Crisis Ireland has said. A friend of Emer McLysaght recently became an official Irish citizen and, as Emer prides herself on being a considerate gift giver, she set about coming up with the perfect token to mark the occasion. A vintage aerial photo of her friend’s home. Presented by Aideen Finnegan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An Irish citizen has pleaded not guilty in a Hungarian court to the murder of his ex-wife, a Japanese national, and to setting fire to her apartment in an alleged attempt to make her death look like an accident. The price of fuel at the pumps could be as high as €2.30 a litre by December. Pricewatch editor Conor Pope is drilling into why. The DUP and the Orange Order have made complaints to the PSNI about Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and the party’s vice president and northern Ireland first minister, Michelle O’Neill. It’s over their presence at a protest in Portadown on Sunday, preventing a contentious Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road. Laura Kennedy is examining the Sally Rooney effect on the Irish female experience. She argues that where once women were taught not to have “notions”; now their thoughts, feelings and perspectives have become an intangible cultural export. Presented by Aideen Finnegan. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The standoff between residents of Garvaghy Road, Co. Armagh, and the Orange Order shows no sign of resolution. Ireland is spending less per student across its education system than the average developed country, according to an OECD report. Almost 30,000 people have opted out of the State’s new auto-enrolment pension scheme, but the Government says participation remains far stronger than expected. Heimir Hallgrímsson has told The Irish Times Ireland’s soccer players won’t make a decision on whether to fulfil their second match against Israel on Sunday, until after Thursday’s nations league clash against Austria. Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Permission for an Orange Order march on the Gervaghy Road in Portadown expired at midnight with 35 Orangemen blocked by thousands of nationalist protestors. The Government is facing fresh pressure on the public finances, after a €700 million spending buffer set aside earlier this year was completely used up. More than 328,000 homes are in electricity arrears according to new figures. A controversy over Dublin’s Herzog Park has highlighted a legal gap that could require new legislation. Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a heavy few days in store for Heimir Hallgrímsson’s Republic of Ireland squad as they get ready to travel to Hungary to face Israel on Sunday. It’s after their one nil loss to Kosovo in Pristina last night. The wife and mother of German fraudster Hendrick Holt, also known as, the “wind power swindler”, have established two companies in Dublin that have links with his business. Only a small minority of voters would be prepared to consider changes such as a new Irish flag, national anthem or joining the Commonwealth to make a united Ireland more acceptable to northern unionists, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll. The first new private hospital project in Dublin for two decades is under way after healthcare group Bon Secours bought a south county site near the M50 motorway in a multi-million euro deal. U2 was born this day 50 years ago. Ivan McCormick was there and says he “witnessed the first spark.” Presented by Aideen Finnegan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Help with the cost of energy and home heating is the top priority for voters in next month’s budget, according to the latest Irish Times/Ipsos B&A opinion poll. The HSE is appointing doctors from outside of the EU to work in hospitals without having assurances about their competence in the English language or that they had no criminal records in Ireland or abroad, internal auditors have maintained. The Government is expected to offer 16-year-olds a €100 voucher to spend on arts and culture events as part of Budget 2027. Our Europe correspondent Naomi O’Leary has been looking at the various countries that have brought in similar schemes. What do you call your parents? Mum? Dad? Or by their first names? Simon Tierney asks what that says about family dynamics. Presented by Aideen Finnegan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A French judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC) said the “rule of law” is at steak over US sanctions on judges. A newly released filing has highlighted Ireland’s dependence on a handful of multinationals for corporation tax, with Apple and Microsoft contributing 98% of the tens of billions collected. Criminal exploitation by drug gangs is now the biggest concern among organisations working in child trafficking, according to The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission. Radiologists have raised concerns about doctors reviewing scans for Irish patients from abroad, stating that their lack of registration with the Irish regulator can result in “increased patient risk”. Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kinahan cartel founder Christy Kinahan Snr is unlikely to face criminal charges unless new information emerges, The Irish Times has established. Dissident republican Colm Murphy “sat like a spider at the centre of the web of the plan to detonate a bomb in Omagh”, the inquiry into the 1998 atrocity was told on Monday. The Irish Times has heard from victims of racial attacks in Belfast of how they “feared” for their lives as mobs attacked their homes. Some armoured vehicles purchased by the Defence Forces recorded no mileage for years, newly released figures show.  Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The German Chancellor Freidrich Merz has described state elections won by the far right AfD and the far left ⁠Die Linke, but he is refusing to resign. Housing Minister James Browne is continuing to push for a significant expansion of the Help to Buy scheme ahead of Budget 2027. The overhaul of the Leaving Certificate is facing fresh turbulence, with the country’s largest second-level teachers’ union, the ASTI, warning of growing frustration among the people tasked with redesigning the curriculum. A review of free hot school meals shows pupils are choosing processed food over healthy alternatives. The Irish Times looks at the impact the tech billionaire John Collison has had on the town of Abbeyleix, Co. Laoise, who bought an historic estate five years ago.  Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ireland’s tax receipts from tech giants should be redistributed amongst European countries, the French finance minister has told The Irish Times. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has described the aim of welcoming Canada as an “associate member” of the European Union as a “positive move”. The Health Service Executive (HSE) is facing fresh questions over hospital productivity, after new analysis found inpatient activity rose by just 2 per cent over the past six years, despite a 52 per cent increase in real spending. Ministers at Stormont are to conduct a review into the ‘trial of the facts’ mechanism in which Eleanor Donaldson was deemed medically unfit to stand trial after she was found to have aided and abetted Jeffrey Donaldson’s child sex abuse. A data centre which was granted planning permission from Mayo County Council last year, has had it overturned.  Presented by Andrew McNair. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.