Mary Regan

Good morning.

So listen, take us through what's going to happen today, at what time and so on.

The big question is what will the independents who support the government do?

Do we have a sense of that yet?

OK.

And this debate today, will it focus on the reasons why the protests happened or that government handling of the protests or will it be a good mix of both?

Mary Regan's going to stay with us now.

Stick on your headphones there, Mary, because I want to bring in two more guests on this.

I'm joined by Michael McDool, who's a senator and former Thornishdown Minister for Justice, and Aintoo TD Paul Lawless.

Now, Michael McDool, I know you were critical of some elements of the protest, but if the focus of this debate is going to be on the government's handling of them, do you think that the government deserves some criticism on that front too?

It was inevitable that it was coming.

Another matter I wanted to ask you about is, and much has been made of the Justice Minister's invoking of the Defence Forces last Thursday morning.

Now it seems, according to reports in the Irish Independent, that the Defence Minister didn't know or wasn't aware that Jim O'Callaghan was going to do that.

That does sound chaotic at least, doesn't it?

But surely before he issued that public statement on Thursday morning, he should have had a full conversation with Helen McEntee, with the defence minister, that he was going to announce that it was within his right and that he could see it coming, essentially, that the army would be called in to help the Gardaí.

OK, and you don't see that there was an issue with lack of consultation between ministers?

Okay, Ainto TD, Paul Lawless is with us as well.

I see you're calling on the government to cut the VAT on fuel, and we know Poland and Spain have done that, but already they've had a slapdown from the EU Commission.

It's against the rules to do that.

Poland are going to pull it back at the end of the month.