New lower speed limits come into effect this week and motorists will see major reductions on many rural and urban roads.

Conor Faughnan, transport commentator and chief executive of the RIAC, joins The Last Word to discuss the new speed limits and Ireland's road safety issues.

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Andy O’Donoghue has a run down of all the latest fitness technology from free Apps, to smart watches.

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The Copernicus Climate Change Service has said that last month was the warmest January on record. It’s the 18th of the last 19th months that saw global average surface air temperature more than 1.5C above the pre-industrial level.

Commentator John Gibbons joined Matt for this week’s Environment slot.

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The family of Joe Drennan have expressed their anger at the prison sentence of the man who killed him in a hit and run in 2023.

Kieran Fogarty from Co. Limerick received a six-and-a-half-year sentence for dangerous driving causing death & an eight-year sentence for a drive-by shooting earlier that year. Both sentences will run concurrently & have been backdated to October 2023.

On Thursday’s The Last Word, Matt spoke to Conor Sheehan, Labour TD for Limerick City and Conor Hanly, Law Lecturer at the University of Galway about why sentences run concurrently in Ireland.

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Daragh O'Brien, Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy, and Minister for Transport, outlined the plans for ESB to upgrade the electricity network and insure its resilience.

As former minister for housing, he also spoke about the CSO figures released two weeks ago that suggested there was a shortfall in housing completions for 2024.

To listen to the full conversation, press the play button on this page.

On this week's Culture Club, Doireann Ní Ghlacáin, presenter, musician and co-host of How to Gael podcast, joins The Last Word to discuss her favourite music, movies and more.

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US President Donald Trump's plan to 'take over' war torn Gaza and turn it into the 'Riviera of the Middle East' has been met with shock and global condemnation.

Professor Aoife O’Donoghue from Queen's University Belfast and journalist Hannah McCarthy join The Last Word to discuss the proposal which flies in the face of international law and risks further destabilising the Middle East.

Later, Marion McKeone and Larry Donnelly join to assess whether the US President is really serious about this plan which would amount to an ethnic cleansing.

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On Tuesday, Matt was joined by author Joseph O’Connor as he discussed the release of his latest book “The Ghosts of Rome”.

The book is set in spring 1944 and follows a group of people who help others escape the Germans in Rome, which has been occupied by the Nazis for six months.

They also discussed the current political landscape in both Ireland and around the world, and how it is reflected in the themes throughout the novel.

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