Full coverage: Politics

Irrespective of who wins on Tuesday, there is the compelling sense that the US has reached a moment of denouement. When the votes are cast, what America will we inherit?

Michael McGrath has just co-authored an unprecedented €17.75bn budget package. Now, he wants to ensure he gets value for the money. Here, he explains how, and also discusses the new business supports for business, Brexit trade talks and the impact of the new Covid-19 restrictions.

Much delayed legislation introduced by the Government on Wednesday will apply to Ireland the carbon budgeting world standard developed by the UK since 2008. It may not ban petrol cars as promised, but its ambition is much bigger: regulate the collaboration between scientific experts and politicians in solving their greatest challenge for the next 30 years.

With Phil Hogan gone, the focus now turns to the position he has vacated. Here is why the trade commissioner job matters, and why an Irish candidate is likely to replace Hogan.

David McWilliams believes that the crisis has presented a major opportunity to make society - and the role of the economy within it - a better place. The economist says the new government should borrow heavily, and invest in crucial public services and infrastructure.

Official figures show that the delivery of new social housing is increasingly reliant on the purchase of “turnkey” units from private developers. Sinn Féin Housing Spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin argues that the draft Programme for Government offers no solution to replace them with direct development by social housing bodies, which would be cheaper and more suitable.

The majority of policies agreed by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to achieve the transition towards a greener economy were already known from previous commitments or set in EU legislation. Yet a new level of ambition is emerging, with concrete actions most clearly spelled out in transport – and a lot left to be teased out in agriculture.

While political agitation focuses on the already agreed target of a 7% annual cut in greenhouse gas emissions for the next decade, the real question is whether the next Government will agree to spend Covid-19 recovery funds in a way that makes low-carbon technologies more attractive than increasingly cheap fossil fuels.

Following on from the recent debate between Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin surrounding proposed 100-year leases for social housing, Sinn Féin's spokesperson on housing Eoin Ó Broin publishes a full costing for the measure – and maintains that it would not deliver value.

Irish policymakers have been ignoring inconvenient truths for decades. Over the next three weeks, I will be looking at the real data in a range of issues including the national accounts and the labour market. But today, I am starting with housing.