It may well be that the fractured world of podcasts and social media has robbed budget day of its overarching dramatic flair of old. But on radio, at least, the Government’s annual spending announcement can still rile people, as Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers discovers when he turns up on Tuesday’s Drivetime (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays).
By way of welcoming the Minister, Cormac Ó hEadhra reads out a slew of complaints about the budget from homeless and disability charities. “How did you upset so many people when you had billions in surplus to spend?” the presenter asks.
Normally, this might be considered a hostile reception. But in this instance it’s the easy bit for Chambers. Such is the fallout from Jim Gavin’s withdrawal from the presidential race – Ó hEadhra can’t decide whether to call it a debacle or a calamity – that being quizzed about an unsatisfactory budget must seem like a cakewalk for the Fianna Fáil Minister, who managed the former Dublin GAA manager’s misfiring election campaign.
Sure enough, Chambers parries questions about the budget in blandly drilled fashion but sounds less convincing about the sequence of events that saw Gavin abruptly drop out of the race over a failure to return overpaid rent to a former tenant.
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Pressed by Ó hEadhra about why he didn’t “correct the record” when the tenant – subsequently revealed as the journalist Niall Donald – contacted Fianna Fáil’s press office with proof after an earlier denial, Chambers seems flummoxed by the question, eventually replying vaguely about it being “a matter of hours” between the provision of proof and Gavin’s swansong appearance on a television debate.
Although not the Watergate-level cover-up that the host’s urgent tone might suggest, the Minister’s performance does nothing to dispel the impression of an omnishambles.
It follows a similarly unpersuasive appearance on Monday’s Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio 1, weekdays), in which Chambers lays the blame squarely on Gavin – “the party was not informed by the candidate of this matter” – while ducking questions from the presenter Justin McCarthy about any responsibility of his own.
Others are more forthcoming about where fault for the fiasco lies. Speaking to Shane Coleman on Tuesday’s Newstalk Breakfast (weekdays), the former Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív identifies the rushed nature of the campaign as a “fatal flaw”. There was no party process to put forward names for the presidency until Taoiseach Micheál Martin threw his weight behind Gavin’s candidacy, Ó Cuív says, contrasting this situation with the “very clear path” Fine Gael had in place for the contest.
For the grandson of Éamon de Valera, the Fianna Fáil founder, to hold up the old blueshirt enemy as a paragon of electoral efficiency gives some indication of the rumbling discontent within the party. Noting that Martin has led the party for almost 15 years, Ó Cuív twists the knife. “There seems to be a natural sell-by date for leaders,” he observes, with the exquisite lethality of a professional hit job.
After that the budget might seem like a political anticlimax, but Coleman and Ciara Kelly, his cohost, do their best to get worked up about it on Wednesday’s show. Kelly is annoyed that the Government hasn’t cut income tax, claiming it overlooks middle-class workers, whom she dubs “the little red hen”. “The average worker in this State is €500 worse off,” she continues, bemoaning the lack of tax reliefs as a disincentive to work.
But Coleman, who has already criticised Opposition TDs for targeting developers in their budget speeches – “a dangerous narrative”, he cautions – disagrees with his colleague. “Cutting income tax would be madness,” he says, citing the profligate generosity and overheating economy of the Celtic Tiger years as a cautionary tale.
It’s the closest thing to praise for the budget from either presenter, although they’re hardly alone in their lack of enthusiasm. On Budget 2026 (Newstalk, Tuesday), the presenter Anton Savage and the station’s business editor, Joe Lynam, proffer verdicts ranging from the lukewarm – “it’s hard to point to anyone who’s happy” – to the tepid: “there’s a lot of disappointed people out there.”
Budgets rarely elicit euphoric acclaim, but this one lands as a particular dud.
On Wednesday’s edition of The Pat Kenny Show (Newstalk, weekdays), the host echoes the unimpressed mood in advance of his interview with the Taoiseach. “Did the budget please even some of the people some of the time?” Kenny wonders before putting the idea to his guest in typically unvarnished terms: “It would appear that nobody’s happy.”
Though not exactly in joyful form himself, Martin defends the Government’s budget in resolute terms, sounding composed despite the setbacks of previous days. He duly lauds the budget for addressing the country’s infrastructure deficit, and although Kenny picks apart some of the Taoiseach’s assertions, particularly in regard to energy and housing, the host can’t quite land a telling blow.
In keeping with the week’s overarching political dynamic, however, Martin sounds less surefooted when the conversation turns to the Jim Gavin affair. He insists that there was “comprehensive due diligence” in terms of looking into the candidate’s past, despite appearances to the contrary. “I feel very sorry for him,” he adds. “I think everyone does,” replies the host.
That’s where Kenny’s sympathy ends, however, as he bluntly asks the Taoiseach about the diminishing likelihood of him leading his party into the next election: “Do you feel vulnerable?” On this occasion Martin strikes a more straightforwardly defiant note, saying he has to rise to the pressure.
It caps off a few days when separate dramas – one an annual ritual, the other an unexpected implosion – combine to dominate, and indeed animate, the airwaves with political theatre, seemingly every item or interview propelling forward the twin stories.
By Thursday morning Martin has staved off any imminent leadership challenge with a parliamentary-party meeting – “he did decent job,” Coleman says, “for now” – but it’s still a rich week for aficionados of current-affairs radio. Venerable fiscal traditions may no longer be as newsworthy, but you can’t budget for the unforeseen.
Moment of the week
The dreadfully premature death of Manchán Magan is keenly felt by Brendan O’Connor (RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday), to whom the late author and broadcaster gave an unforgettable interview about illness and mortality only three weeks earlier. “He was determined to come in here, from his hospital bed, to reflect on his life,” O’Connor says. “And also to hit us between the eyes about facing death.”
The singer Liam Ó Maonlaí and the podcaster Blindboy also pay inimitable tribute to Manchán’s remarkable ability to use his many talents to bring together ecology, spirituality and Gaeilge, but it’s the host who captures his legacy best.
“Really, those were just the mediums he used,” O’Connor says. “Manchán was the message. He went around sowing these seeds and connecting things. I think he connected half the country back to an teanga, to our roots, our dúchas, our heritage.” Well said.
