Harry McGee and Cormac McQuinn join Hugh Linehan to look back on the week in politics:

• The Government’s report into Aughinish Alumina is expected to say that material produced there may or may not have been used in Russia’s war machine, citing a lack of evidence either way. Half of the alumina produced in the plant in the first quarter of this year went to Russia, up from 43 per cent last year. Will the Limerick plant’s days be numbered eventually?

• The calls to ban e-scooters grew louder this week with Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly saying society would be “better off” without them. On Tuesday Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he is “leaning towards” a total ban on e-scooters as the Dáil discussed the issue following incidents resulting in deaths and serious injuries.

• The high cost of deportation flights was laid out in figures supplied by the Department of Justice to the Public Accounts Committee. They showed that the State paid more than €1 million for a single deportation flight when returning 42 adults and children from Ireland to South Africa in June.

• Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan shows no sign of backing down in the row over legal aid solicitor fees. Now more than 100 solicitors have made it known that they intend to resign from the criminal legal aid panel, with solicitors continuing to refuse to provide advice to suspects detained for questioning in Garda stations.

• And it is goodbye to Keir Starmer as the UK prime minister defended his record and offered his support to Andy Burnham who succeeds him as Labour party leader.

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As the Dáil shuts down for the summer it's time for Hugh, Pat and Jack to take stock of the term gone by. But the biggest political event of the year didn't happen in Leinster House. The April fuel protests left their mark on Irish politics as few other events of recent years have.

In part two: How have the various parties navigated the term? Has Mary Lou McDonald steadied the SF ship, and could a forthcoming book by a former party insider cause renewed problems? Can the Social Democrats maintain their recent momentum? Has Simon Harris dialled down his high-energy approach to politics? And when Harris rotates back into the taoiseach's office next year, will Micheal Martin still be the man he’ll take over from?

Finally: Martin has repeatedly said this Government will be about results, delivery and substance. But will there be enough of that to satisfy voters? On the cost of living issue in particular, the challenge is steep - even with the next election a long way off.

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Last week an appeals court opened the way for Marine Le Pen of French far-right party National Rally to stand in next year's presidential election. If the far right comes to power in Paris it will be the culmination of a long journey that is outlined in The Dark Side of France: A History of the Far Right, a new book by Irish journalist Enda O’Doherty.

Hugh talks to O’Doherty about his book and what a Le Pen victory would mean. They discuss tensions within National Rally between economically liberal conservatism and its working-class base and trace the far right’s roots from the Dreyfus Affair and antisemitism through Action Française, Vichy collaboration, the Algeria crisis and how Marine’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen built up National Rally, then called Front National.

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