Tánaiste Micheál Martin launches new podcast

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has adopted the role of interviewer instead of the interviewee in his new podcast ‘In Conversation’.

Launched on Monday, the inaugural podcast episode discusses how Ireland has developed since the foundation of the State with Mr Martin in conversation with Dr Mark Henry, author of ‘In Fact: An Optimist’s Guide to Ireland at 100’.

Dr Henry’s latest book examines human progress in recent decades and tracks how Ireland has transformed over the last 100 years.

In the podcast, Mr Henry told Mr Martin how Ireland has “achieved a lot” and that it is now “up there amongst the leading nations of the world.” The Tánaiste and Dr Henry chat about the quality of life in Ireland today through the lens of issues that impact everyone such as economy, education and wellbeing, and the many challenges that face the country including housing, climate change, biodiversity and the cost of living.

Dr Henry said people are living longer and that cancer mortality rates are just one of the indicators of how far Ireland has progressed in recent decades.

“Even for those in the 1990s, if you had a cancer diagnosis, for 60% of people that was a death sentence within five years. Unfortunately, they passed away,” he said.

“Today that's reversed. More than six in ten will survive longer than five years. So, we've made very good progress.” On the issue of the current housing crisis, the Tánaiste highlighted how more needs to be done and at a faster pace to deal with the demand.

“We have to do more, do more faster to deal with the housing issue, particularly for younger people. Because you see amidst all of this optimism and sort of positivity, there are stories underneath this,” he said.

“Notwithstanding wage growth and employment for young people today, to buy a house is still very difficult.

“And that's why a whole range of schemes have been made available to try and enable people to afford to buy and to give the option of homeownership, which I think is an important anchor in society, as well as social housing for those that are not in a position to purchase homes. But we do need to get above 30,000.” 

More episodes of the ‘In Conversation’ podcast are due to be released later this year.

The podcast is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Stream it now by clicking here.