How the Government bungled its response to fuel protests

Ellen Coyne and Jack Horgan-Jones join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics: It was becoming clear towards the end of last week that protests over the price of fuel were coming. But the scale of what has unfolded seems to have caught the Government by surprise. Then there were missteps in the handling of the situation throughout the week. Now the battle lines have been drawn and positions have been given time and space to harden. Has the State’s authority been undermined? Jack and Ellen take us inside a week of crisis for the country and the coalition . Some opposition politicians showed enthusiastic support for the protests in their early stages, but the mood has become much more cautious as the scale of the impact on daily life has become clear. Donald Trump has claimed the two-week Iran war ceasefire as a victory for the US. In reality, the outcome is anything but . Plus the panel pick their favourite Irish Times articles of the week, including the nuances of court reporting , Paris’s anti-Emily in Paris movement and the childlike wonder inspired by the Artemis mission to the Moon . Would you like to receive daily insights into world events delivered to your inbox? Sign up for Denis Staunton's Global Briefing newsletter here: irishtimes.com/newsletters/global-briefing/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to How the Government bungled its response to fuel protests online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

How the Government bungled its response to fuel protests is an episode from Irish Times Inside Politics by The Irish Times.

This episode is 53:34 long.

This episode was published on Apr 10, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from Irish Times Inside Politics when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.