Demographic trends spell trouble for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil

On today’s Inside Politics podcast Harry McGee and Pat Leahy join Hugh Linehan to discuss the week in politics:

• The latest Irish Times / Ipsos opinion poll shows Sinn Féin continuing to gain. But the poll also shows it won’t be easy for the party to find a coalition partner, should it needs one.
• Beyond the next election, the poll reveals problems for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael when it comes to attracting young voters.
• Budget 2024 is just over a week away and for now the message is that this will not be a pre-election giveaway - but will that hold?
• Taoiseach Leo Varadkar dropped an unusual and somewhat controversial reference this week, prompting our panel to speculate about his TV viewing habits.

Plus the panel select their favourite Irish Times reads of the week:

• Without mentioning the song, Diarmaid Ferriter has (hopefully) the last work on Zombiegate.
• Michael McDowell calls for a new agency to reverse Dublin’s decline.
• And Pat commends our reporters’ wide coverage of this week’s historic drugs bust.