{"podcast":{"title":"The David McWilliams Podcast","slug":"the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453","podcast_index_feed_id":512453,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/20b97d01-ba9b-5fb0-9acf-161391a88cb0","website_url":"http://www.davidmcwilliams.ie/","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/61b9fedc1a8cbefa383cf076/show-cover.jpg","author":"David McWilliams","episode_count":678,"summary":"The aim of this weekly podcast is to make economics easy, uncomplicated and accessible. With the world at a political, technological and financial tipping point, economics has never been so important to all of us and yet, it’s made inaccessible and complicated by so many. I’ve always thought what is complicated is rarely important and what is important is rarely complicated. That will be our motto. Every week we are going to tease out some big economic or political issue facing us, not just here in Ireland but in Europe and further afield. Globalisation has brought us all together. We all face similar challenges whether you live in Dublin, London, Minnesota or Milan. If you would like to enjoy all of our content ad-free and have early access to episodes, subscribe to DMCW+ on Apple Podcast. Want to join our crew? Join at davidmcwilliams.ie/crew , where you can enjoy ad-free listening, as well as exclusive bonus content such as premium episodes, our macroeconomics course, early access to episodes and pre-sale access to tickets for Dalkey Book Festival & Kilkenomics. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-06T18:19:51.080822+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453"},"episode":{"title":"The Premature State: Why Ireland Can’t Build Itself","slug":"the-premature-state-why-ireland-can-t-build-itself","published_at":"2026-04-23T03:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453/the-premature-state-why-ireland-can-t-build-itself","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453","url":"https://shows.acast.com/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast/episodes/the-premature-state-why-ireland-cant-build-itself","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast/e/69e832e317df632b85077220/media.mp3","summary":"Ireland is one of the richest countries in Europe, so why does it feel like it isn’t? We sit down with economist and engineer Sinead O'Sullivan to unpack a deceptively simple but deeply uncomfortable idea: Ireland is a premature state. Despite extraordinary wealth on paper, everyday life tells a different story. Housing is broken, infrastructure lags behind, public services struggle to deliver. So where is all the money going? The answer, as Sinead argues, is structural. Ireland has become exceptionally good at spending money, but never properly learned how to build systems. For centuries, key functions of the state were outsourced, first to the British Empire, then the Church, then the EU, and now multinational corporations. The result is a country rich in resources, but lacking the institutional muscle to turn that wealth into a functioning society. We also take on the reaction to this kind of thinking; the “nitpickers” who focus on minor details to avoid confronting big, uncomfortable truths. If Ireland’s problem isn’t money, but capacity, then the implications are far more serious than any short-term fix. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","meta_description":"Ireland is one of the richest countries in Europe, so why does it feel like it isn’t? We sit down with economist and engineer Sinead O'Sullivan to unpack…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2655,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453/episodes/the-premature-state-why-ireland-can-t-build-itself/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-david-mcwilliams-podcast-512453/the-premature-state-why-ireland-can-t-build-itself.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}