The Floating Voter

Can and should the Gardai go on strike and what will it mean for the country if they do down tools? Leo Varadkar thinks all will be changed, changed utterly if it goes ahead.

Plus, why are the Independents so angry at the world? Between judges and abortion, this week in the Dail they’ve been spoiling for a row.

And how apt that Las Vegas was the location for last night’s final debate in the US Presidential Election – is Hillary now a shoe-in or is there more twists to come on the campaign trail?

Philip Ryan and Niall O'Connor join Kevin Doyle for Independent.ie's weekly politics podcast, the Floating Voter.

How much are our TDs really worth? €70k, €80k per annum? More or even less? The Floating Voter team of Kevin Doyle, Niall O'Connor and Philip Ryan discuss the merits and values of Irish politicians and compare them to the pay packets of Russian parliamentarians.

The furore over an under-whelming Budget 2017 was the revelation that Ministers and politicians were to get a pay rise next year, although the government has now rowed back on the ministerial rise but it still shows the low regard they're still held in by the Irish public.

Elsewhere on the show, the hot topics and fall-out from the housing and childcare initiatives are discussed and explained, whilst the panel asks why Mary Mitchell O'Connor comes under such flak from her party.

With the return of the Dail, the Floating Voter politics podcast is back and started the new political season from the 2016 Ploughing Championships.

In front of a standing-room only crowd at the Ploughing Championships, the Floating Voter team of Kevin Doyle and Niall O'Connor returned to discuss all things agri with Agriculture Minister, Michael Creed, FF Agriculture spokesperson, Charlie McConalogue, and Independent TD Michael Fitzmaurice.

The issue of farm prices, the grain industry, the effects of Brexit, and what the government needs to be doing to help farmers more in the upcoming budget were all up for discussion and Minister Creed admitted it had been another tough year for Irish farmers.

"We are bloodied but we are not unbowed after a difficult year," he said.

"Well it's our job as politicians to wipe the blood off their noses and sort things out," Mr Fitzmaurice said in response.  "It is all about protecting rural communities."

As the Dail breaks for its 10 week summer holiday, the Floating Voter looked back on the highs and lows of the political year so far. Labour's Housing Spokesperson, Jan O'Sullivan, also joined INM's Kevin Doyle, Nicola Anderson and Comrac McQuinn as they discussed the government's plan to solve the housing crisis, while the Limerick TD also derided the 'do-nothing Dail' giving Enda Kenny a 5/10 for his efforts so far.

Fergus O’Dowd, one of the rebel backbenchers who spoke out against Enda Kenny this week, appeared on the Floating Voter podcast to explain his position in Fine Gael’s leadership battle.

“My loyalty is not unquestioning,” he told the panel of presenter Kevin Doyle, and INM political correspondents, Niall O’Connor and Cormac McQuinn.

“Don’t talk to me about loyalty. Loyalty is about sticking by the party and I’m not going to take a lecture from you on loyalty,” was what O’Dowd told the Taoiseach behind closed doors.

“My concern is that we have to have a plan in place for an orderly, transaprent succession to Enda Kenny. That is a fact. It is about being ready,” O’Dowd told the Floating Voter show.

As to what way he would vote if a vote of no confidence arose, the Louth TD refused to commit, ‘we will see if that day comes’, though he admited that he had never voted for Enda Kenny as leader and that he wants to see the party change its attitude to people across the country.

“We need to get back to the centre ground. I’m concerned we have moved too far to the right. Poverty, drugs, crime, housing, these are issues affecting people. We need to reach out to the people so they know that the party cares.”

“We’ve learnt our lessons,” declared Fianna Fail TD, James Lawless, reacting on the Floating Voter podcast to the latest opinion poll that shows Fianna Fail surging to 33%.

“Time has moved on, we’ve all moved on,” said the Kildare North TD when asked how the party has come back from the brink so quickly. The party’s increasing popularity also shows that the new politics is working, he said.

“We’re getting stuck in and not shouting from the sidelines looking to bring down the government.”

While Micheal Martin is also number one in the party leader ratings, it is Taoiseach Enda Kenny who is coming under increasing pressure.

Backbench TDs are asking when he’s going to step down and the Floating Voter team of Niall O’Connor and Cormac McQuinn asked whether the Taoiseach was now a political corpse, questioning if he will be gone after the next budget in October.

The Floating Voter is Independent.ie’s weekly political podcast, cutting through the political soundbytes and bursting some of the bubble that surrounds Leinster House.

Listen to the show every week on Independent.ie and get each new show on your phone by subscribing on iTunes.

Fine Gael's Josepha Madigan joined the Floating Voter this week to discuss her proposed new divorce bill and the Sunday Independent's Niamh Horan was in studio to discuss why abortion-on-demand must be introduced to Ireland.

On this Brexit Special, Floating Voter presenter, Kevin Doyle, was joined by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, economists Susan Hayes-Culleton and Brendan Keenan, and INM Business Editor, Dearbhail McDonald, to discuss the consequences and impact of the Brexit vote.

The killing of Labour MP, Jo Cox, dominated the discussion on this week’s Floating Voter with Kevin Doyle, Cormac McQuinn, Philip Ryan and Niall O’Connor.

Niall was just off the plane from the UK where he spent the last few days covering the Brexit campaign and was able to report on the political reaction and shock in Britain to the death of the Vote Remain campaigner.

Elsewhere on the show, Independent TD for Clare, Michael Harty, was in studio to explain how he got the powerful position of Chair of the Health Committee and was adamant no deal had been done with the government.

He also explained how nearly 10% of GPs don’t earn a living from their local practices and why the Dail is from another planet and more akin to the goings-on at the Abbey Theatre.

In the wake of the UN Human Rights Committee’s ruling that a woman carrying a foetus with a fatal abnormality was subjected to discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in the Republic of Ireland, the question of repealing the 8th has arisen again.

Newbie TD for Cork South West and Fianna Fail’s Spokesperson for Disability, Margaret Murphy O’Mahony, joined the Floating Voter on this week’s show and voiced her strong pro-life views on the matter.

“I personally am very, very, pro-life and it’s a red-line issue for me,” she told the Floating Voter team of Kevin Doyle, Philip Ryan and Niall O’Connor. “ I don’t agree with repealing the 8th amendment but it is very personal and I don’t agree with ramming my views down people’s throats and wouldn’t expect others to ram their views down mine either."