Prime Time is an Irish current affairs television programme airing on RTÉ One on Tuesday and Thursday nights (following the RTÉ Nine O'Clock News).

First broadcast on RTÉ One in 1992, Miriam O'Callaghan has been its main presenter since 1995. Only one show per week is broadcast during the summer months. In January 2013, The Frontline's format and presenter were subsumed into Prime Time as part of a re-branding exercise at RTÉ News and Current Affairs. Pat Kenny soon left RTÉ. Later the Monday slot which had been The Frontline was again split from Prime Time; Claire Byrne left to present the newly branded Claire Byrne Live programme in that slot.

Ireland's current affairs and major societal issues are dealt with, often with politicians, journalists, commentators and industry representatives giving their views live in the studio or via satellite link-up from RTÉ's regional studios and abroad. Two to three stories tend to be covered, with a pre-recorded piece from a reporter followed by a studio discussion. Sometimes the full programme will be devoted to one topic, and may consist entirely of an in-depth documentary piece or investigation from a single reporter. Extended or additional editions are broadcast on occasions such as a general election or resulting from major international events, such as the November 2015 Paris attacks. Typically there is no audience attendance, although during these special editions audience involvement and attendance may be included.

In January 2007 a programme on Bank closures.

On Thursday April 11th 2024 there will be a special edition on Car Accidents, Road deaths, Traffic jams & Pollution. Reopening of closed railway lines all over the island of Ireland North, South, East, West & Midlands.

Prime Time in its original format began on Thursday 17 September 1992, replacing Today Tonight— similar in format, which had aired since 1980. At the outset the programme had two presenters, Olivia O'Leary and Brian Farrell, and three reporters, Áine Lawlor, Mike Milotte, and Brendan O'Brien. The introduction of the new programme was part of a wider change in current affairs broadcasting by RTÉ. Today Tonight, which had been broadcast from Monday to Thursday, would now be replaced by five very different and distinct types of current affairs programmes which would be broadcast from Sunday to Thursday. These included Farrell on Sunday, a series where Brian Farrell would conduct a series of one-to-one interviews with public figures. Questions and Answers would fill the Monday current affairs slot and would continue with its usual format of a panel of public figures answering questions from the audience. Tuesday File would contain a weekly filmed report. Marketplace, which was previously broadcast on Network 2, would occupy the Wednesday slot and would deal with financial matters, industrial relations, public affairs and business. Prime Time would round off the week's current affairs programming on Thursday evenings.

Mary Raftery's Prime Time special "Cardinal Secrets" broadcast of 2002 led to the Murphy Commission of Investigation into clerical abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese being set up; the Murphy Report was published in 2009.

A spin-off series, Prime Time Investigates, used to be shown on Monday nights in short seasons of four to six episodes, featuring investigative journalism and undercover reporting. The series suspended in 2011 after RTÉ's Aoife Kavanagh defamed Fr. Kevin Reynolds in an episode aired on RTÉ One with the title, "Mission to Prey", during which Kavanagh falsely accused Fr. Kevin Reynolds of raping a woman and fathering a child in Kenya. Director-General of RTÉ Noel Curran admitted the broadcasting of "Mission to Prey" was "one of the gravest editorial mistakes ever made" at RTÉ.