What's wrong with Ireland? Sinead O'Sullivan has an answer

What's wrong with Ireland? Sinead O'Sullivan has an answer

From Inside Politics with Hugh Linehan by The Irish Times

May 18, 2026 · 54 min

About this episode

Sinead O'Sullivan discusses Ireland's infrastructure and service deficits and critiques the state's failure to deliver essential services.

Economist and author Sinead O'Sullivan ruffled some feathers recently with her analysis of Ireland’s deficits in infrastructure and services. Her critiques of the State’s failure to deliver things that are taken for granted in other similarly wealthy countries sparked debate and drew pushback from figures including former taoiseach Leo Varadkar.  On today’s Inside Politics podcast she talks to Hugh about how her professional background in designing complex systems made it “ impossible for me not to see” the flaws she identifies in the Irish model. She argues that Ireland lacks strong institutions capable of separating long-term delivery from electoral politics, resulting in costly, short-term fixes.  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.

People in this episode

Host: Hugh Linehan

Guest: Sinead O'Sullivan

Topics covered

  • Ireland
  • infrastructure
  • services
  • politics
  • economics
  • institutional failure

Keywords

  • Ireland
  • infrastructure
  • Sinead O'Sullivan
  • politics
  • Leo Varadkar
  • economics
  • services

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Irish Times

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