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The Dáil summer recess has arrived and our political experts Pat Leahy, Jennifer Bray and Cormac McQuinn have convened to look back on the political season:

• The relative political fortunes of Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar.

• Do polls suggest Sinn Féin has hit a ceiling of support?

• Did the Government get a handle on the migrant accommodation crisis? Or can it claim real progress on broader issue of a lack of housing?

• How has the huge budget surplus perturbed politics?

Plus, Jennifer reveals what the Leinster House gossip is saying about the timing of the next election.

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Pat Leahy and Harry McGee join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics including hopefully the final week of RTÉ Oireachtas committee mania and the spiralling cost of delivering the National Children's Hospital.

Plus they select the finest Irish Times articles from throughout the week, including what happens when you send a grumpy sportswriter to report on politics.

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It's the Twelfth and to mark Unionism and Loyalism's day of celebration, Hugh talks to Dr Aaron Edwards, author of A People Under Siege: The Unionists of Northern Ireland from Partition to Brexit and Beyond.

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On today’s Inside Politics podcast Hugh Linehan is joined by Pat Leahy and Jennifer Bray to discuss the week in politics:

• The crisis at RTÉ is entering its third week but, with appearances by Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly before an Oireachtas committee and the takeover by Kevin Bakhurst as Director General all happening next week, the story is not going away, much as weary RTÉ executives and politicians might want it to.

• The Summer Economic Statement prompted some criticism from economists opposed to excessive spending - but little from opposition politicians. Why?

• Opposition to hate speech legislation currently making its way through the Seanad is filling up the inboxes of politicians like Fianna Fail’s Lisa Chambers. But do people’s concerns have much to do with what’s actually in the bill?

Plus the panel recommend their Irish Times articles of the week:

• Newton Emerson on the complexities of talking about how a United Ireland would actually work

• John Fitzgerald on whether the IDA’s current strategy is right for an Ireland of inflation, full employment and overstretched services.

• Patrick Freyne’s guide to the year’s best TV

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Under the leadership of Holly Cairns, the Cork South-West TD who took over from Catherine Murphy and Roisin Shortall in March, the Social Democrats are riding high among the smaller political parties in Dail Eireann - according to opinion polls at least.

But what is the party all about? How is it different from Sinn Fein, the biggest party on the left? And if the Soc Dems were to combine with other political parties in a coalition of compromise after the next election, where would its policy red lines be?

Holly Cairns sat down with Hugh Linehan and Pat Leahy to discuss leadership, politics and policy. But first, they talk about the latest revelations in the crisis at RTE over secret payments to Ryan Tubridy and the future of the national public service broadcaster.

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In a wide-ranging interview in today's Irish Times, Minister for Justice Helen McEntee talks about remarks critical of her taking maternity leave while in office, the stint by Cabinet colleague Simon Harris in her job and her future ambitions. And on today's podcast Jack Horgan-Jones and Jennifer Bray listen back to excerpts from the interview and apply some political analysis.

But first, Jack and Jen threaten to establish a new world order in the absence of Hugh Linehan and the rest of the politics team, before settling down into a discussion of RTE's terrible week, as the broadcaster's top brass endured grillings in front of two Oireachtas committees over secret payments to Ryan Tubridy. Has the management team been irreparably damaged by its association with the week's events?

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Hosting Inside Politics in Hugh Linehan’s absence, Pat Leahy is joined by Current Affairs Editor of The Irish Times, Arthur Beesley and Professor Jane Suiter from DCU’s School of Communications to discuss where we are now after yesterday's statement from RTÉ on Ryan Tubridy’s controversial pay deal.

Are we likely to get satisfactory answers from today’s Oireachtas committee or the Public Accounts committee on Thursday?

And the panel tease out how those running RTÉ can possibly re-establish trust when its own employees are protesting, as well as where its often-complicated relationship with politics goes from here.

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