Is it possible to have a coherent debate on immigration?

Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

·      With renewed criticism from left-wing Opposition leaders of Tánaiste Simon Harris, over remarks he made about migration numbers in Ireland being too high, has it become almost impossible to have an honest discussion around immigration?

·      Taoiseach Micheál Martin is currently away at the Cop30 climate summit in Brazil, but the fallout from Fianna Fáil’s disastrous presidential campaign shows little sign of ebbing away. Could a potential heave against the party leader be gathering momentum?  

·      Could the controversy surrounding Ivan Yates and his admission that he advised Fianna Fáil's presidential candidate Jim Gavin, and the subsequent conflict of interest that created, all have been avoided if he highlighted it early on in the presidential campaign?

·      And Mayor-elect of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, has been branded a ‘commie’, among other things, by US President Donald Trump and various members of the Republican Party, but has Mamdani shown the way forward for politicians mounting an election campaign?

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:

·      The annual British search for Irish poppy refuseniks, the $20,000 AI home robot butler, and Westmeath footballer Luke Loughlin on the issue of recreational drug use and the GAA. 

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