Ellen Coyne and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• Sinn Féin’s Planning for Constitutional Change Bill, which obliges the Government to draft and publish a Green Paper on unification within 18 months, failed to win support from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, or independents.  

• All Government TDs also voted against a PBP Bill to ban hare coursing. The Bill presented an issue where the party whip could have been spared in favour of a free vote, given the public’s clear support to outlaw the practice. The Bill was overwhelmingly defeated by 125 votes to 24.

• And this week saw Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and far-right French leader Marine Le Pen take the biggest political gambles of their respective careers.

Plus, the panel picks their favourite Irish Times pieces of the week:

• Graham Platner crashes and burns, dwindling swag bags for visiting journalists, and the derelict ‘Carlton’ site on O’Connell Street is snapped up by MetroLink.