Inside Politics podcast: Best laid national plans

Inside Politics is a regular podcast from The Irish Times. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, on Android, on Stitcher, on ACast or on Soundcloud

The government will unveil two key documents mapping out its plans for Ireland’s future this Friday - the €115bn 10-year Development Plan and the National Planning Framework.

Previous plans have proved ineffective in achieving their goals by spreading the wealth too thinly in an attempt to appease all sides and an initial draft of the planning framework last autumn helped reignite the debate over the rural-urban divide.

On today’s Inside Politics podcast, former environment editor of the Irish Times Frank McDonald, who first warned of the ruination of Irish villages through a suburbanisation of the countryside 30 years ago, joins Harry McGee and Fiach Kelly to discuss the merits of the government’s latest plans.

Government accused of ‘skulduggery’ on National Development Plan

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Government takes hit over ‘rural bias’ claims

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In the second part of the show, Amanda Ferguson reports from Belfast, where talks on re-establishing power-sharing at Stormont appear to have come asunder once again, with the DUP leader Arlene Foster making clear her party’s opposition to any proposal for an Irish Language Act.

Inside Politics is a regular podcast from The Irish Times. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, on Android, on Stitcher, on ACast or on Soundcloud