Matthew O'Toole

speaker

264 appearances 3 recordings 3 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 22 Jun

Matthew O'Toole’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 3.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

Liveline · "People can look out their front window and see a sense of decline..." · 22 Jun 2026 podcast

Well, exactly.

And I think part of what you have to do in the age of impatience, and I'm going to speak of impatience, I'm going to have to run with the Assembly Chamber and do my job.

I think what we have to do is set a very clear trajectory and explain to the public why you're making this.

difficult decisions around taxation or spending, that has to come back to a core overarching purpose for the public, how you're going to make their lives better.

Because if difficult decisions are just happening without any clear rationale, i.e.

as part of a project to deliver a better future for people and better public services, then they're less likely to support them.

I think that was a shortcoming.

So that's what Andy Burnham is going to have to do.

He will have difficult decisions to make, but we as a party in Westminster will be holding him to account for decisions he makes that affect Northern Ireland.

We have lots of big issues here.

And of course, we have bigger issues in terms of the British-Irish relationship.

It's worth saying, to Keir Starmer's credit, one thing he did do

was at least try to build a slightly better British-Irish relationship after years of Brexit dysfunction.

So that was welcome.

And I hope Andy Burnham broadly continues in that vein.

The Claire Byrne Show · Belfast riots continue for second night - latest updates · 11 Jun 2026 podcast

Morning, Clare.

Well, with the greatest respect to Mr. Walsh, Dr. Walsh, we are not going to be instituting widespread border checks on the island of Ireland.

That just is not going to happen.

I don't think there is any appetite for that, outwith parts of the right-wing English commentariat and the ever...

Rightward drifting English political scene and parts of unionism who I think are recreationally talking about this, but understand, I'm sure in their heart of hearts, that it wouldn't be, before you even get onto political and practical and acceptability of it, it would be societally kind of impossible and logistically impossible.

Showing 61–80 of 264 · page 4 of 14