To understand the economy, you have to understand human nature.

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How you doing there? It is time for the podcast. Hope all is well.

John and I are having a little bit of an organ recital before we came on air about our various ailments.

As always. For our various ailments, what ails us now? What bits of our bodies are falling off and not working? Listen, if you're young, you'll get there. If you're our age, you know exactly what we're talking about. Anyway, it is great to have you. It is great to have. It's a big week in Ireland. It is a by-election week.

This is not necessarily something that people get animated by. It is great to have you. It is a big week in Ireland. It is a by-election week.

This is not necessarily something that people get animated by,

but as you will have seen in the UK there,

the other week, by-elections can change the dynamic profoundly.

You think they're kind of small things.

You think they're local elections.

They don't matter. And all of a sudden you get this massive surge of

public, either resentment or support or a change in public opinion. So they are things to watch,

not least because they are bellwethers about where the society is going. We have them coming

up on Friday. Two of them, one of the main issues on the doorsteps seems to be, and not surprisingly

for many people, immigration.

What is the policy? Where is it taking us? What's it doing to the culture? What's it doing to

society? Certain people have economic views, which is, you know, we need immigrants to do X,

Y and Z. Other people have cultural views, which is what does Irish culture mean against

the background of large-scale immigration?

Other people have resource issues.

Other people worry about the education system, the health system, the transport system,

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