‘Say that again?’ Katie Hannon can’t believe what she hears in budget brouhaha

Just as water will find its way through any cracks in a roof, so Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays) has a seemingly unfailing ability to locate the weak spot in any Government policy, or at least a pressure point that yields a deluge of poignant personal testimony. Sure enough, if Ministers thought they had given away enough in Budget 2024 to keep people happy, or at least less unhappy, they reckoned without the affecting stories of foster parents that flood Wednesday’s show.

As callers criticise the increase in foster-care allowances announced on Tuesday as inadequate, with the rise only fully coming into effect late next year, Katie Hannon, the programme’s stand-in host, sounds almost sorry for those feeling the backlash. “I’m wondering if Paschal and Michael are wondering, ‘What an ungrateful bunch,’” Hannon says, referring to the fiscal-gatekeeping ministerial duo of Michael McGrath and Paschal Donohoe. “‘We give them €75 and not an ounce of thanks.’”

She’s being ironic. Hearing her guests talk about the challenges of fostering, it’s clear they’re not in it for the money. “My heart breaks for the children,” one carer says. “They need stability.” But fostering is effectively a full-time job, one that lacks a pension yet is laden with unforeseen expenses. Kerry, who provides children in emergency situations with short-term foster care, recounts buying supplies and clothing for two babies, just one instance among many: in four years she has looked after 200 children. “Say that again?” Hannon asks in disbelief at the numbers involved.

[ ‘It’s a reality that you have to pay for things’: foster carers call for support ]

As so often on Liveline, the cumulative effect highlights the stresses of the whole system as well as the strain on the individuals involved. At Tusla, the family and child agency, “paperwork is more important than the children”, one guest says mournfully. Hannon lends her callers a sympathetic ear. “You’re taken for granted, that’s basically it,” she remarks.

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But her journalistic instincts kick in when Leo Varadkar is accused of indifference towards such vulnerable children. The host quickly notes that the Taoiseach has set up a child-poverty unit in his department, adding that she only says this because Fine Gael would otherwise complain to the programme. Her desire for balance is admirable, but it’s a peculiarly specific way to frame her concerns. Hannon is a steady presence when she fills in for Joe Duffy on Liveline, bringing nous, knowledge and responsiveness to her stints. But, as such moments suggest, she hasn’t quite mastered Duffy’s knack for relentlessly piling on the emotive pressure.

For all that, the exhausted expressions of grievance that Hannon hears from the fostering community are among the most damning verdicts on a budget that in general seems neither to rile nor to rouse. Speaking to Kieran Cuddihy on The Hard Shoulder (Newstalk, weekdays), the journalist John Lee captures the mood when he describes the budget as lacklustre, while observing that the brouhaha surrounding the annual fiscal ritual is now something of an anachronism, particularly when so much detail is leaked in advance.

Nonetheless, the budget still dominates the airwaves like no other domestic issue, even squeezing the unspeakable carnage in Israel and Gaza from the top of the midweek agenda. But a sense of anticlimax largely prevails. Though McGrath and Donohoe have to field some uncomfortable questions when they appear on the traditional postbudget phone-in on Today With Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), there’s little of the seething public acrimony that characterised similar grillings in the years after the crash. It’s not that callers are necessarily satisfied by the Ministers’ well-drilled answers but, rather, that they seem resigned to the responses, before Byrne moves on to the next question.

One of the clear winners from the budget is Pat Kenny (Newstalk, weekdays), who trumps his rival Byrne’s ministerial double act by interviewing Varadkar at the same time. It’s not that the encounter yields any bombshells, or even fireworks, but Kenny’s steady engagement with his guest provides more clarity and candour than the practised emollience of the Taoiseach’s Cabinet colleagues.

Kenny adopts a characteristically wonkish approach. He outlines his reasons for dubbing the budget as political and allows ample time for considered responses. But when the Fine Gael leader insists that the health budget has been increased, he snaps: “So what’s gone wrong there?” In the ensuing exchanges, Varadkar concedes there are “pinch points” in areas such as hospital emergency departments and waiting lists, which at least gives a glimpse of his true thinking on the matter. (Kenny also asks about possible pension provision for foster parents. “We’ll look at that,” comes the non-committal reply.) Meanwhile, Varadkar’s regular assertion that he knows how business works does little to puncture his slightly superior public image.

If Kenny’s interview with the Taoiseach is quietly revealing about his guest, other items say more about the host. He clearly enjoys his chat with the lexicographer Susie Dent, bonding over a shared fondness for esoteric detail as they discuss the origins of odd words and common malapropisms. By the same token, his item about the potential impact of artificial intelligence on the hospitality industry has Kenny going into full boffin mode.

He bombards the technology expert Paul Armstrong with various scenarios in which AI could mitigate excessive drinking in pubs, before dipping into his trusty copy of Old Kenny’s Almanac of Amazing Facts. “You know in Canada the barmen can be prosecuted and the bar closed if you serve someone so much drink they become drunk,” the host informs the suitably bemused Armstrong.

When talk turns to a virtual concierge at a Manchester hotel, Kenny indulges in his trademark clunky humour: he’s not sure whether it will supply cocaine or hookers, he says. By this stage his guest sounds thoroughly nonplussed, but regular listeners will surely appreciate this as a classic Kenny conversation. Not for the first time, the host shows an all-too-human side that no computer could hope to replicate.