Irish Election - Coverage of Irish Politics, News and Current Affairs

Showing that former TDs are fit for at least one other form of employment (besides property dealing), Sunday’s New York Times (reg. req’d) carries an interview with John Bruton in his current capacity as the EU’s ambassador to the US. It’s primarily devoted to him making the case for the importance of two-way investment [...]

This is the last of my trilogy of PD conference post. The reason I have done these three is mainly as I have nothing else to do today. Hopefully some of the other bloggers here might write their thoughts on the conference to give a more rounded view. You can find links to the speeches [...]

Wordpress doesn’t like YouTube imbedded video so you will have to follow this link to see the video.
Update: Simon Working now Part 1
View This Video on You Tube

One of the interesting messages coming out of the PD conference is energy. In a survey that came out in last weeks Sunday Independent one of the big issues for Business people was energy. Also much of the discussion in the recent few weeks has been Nuclear power. Also in most of the recent polls [...]

Unlike the last election Fianna Fail are not going to get a single party majority. Thus the Progressive Democrats “One Party Government No Thanks” campaign is not going to work. Thus they need to shift the focus of there campaign. Unlike Fianna Fail, Fine Gael Labour and Sinn Fein they don’t have a traditional voter [...]

Saturday’s Irish Times has a front page story (subs. maybe req’d) about a likely government proposal to tighten up the electoral register, which as far as anyone can tell is in bad shape.  Amongst other things, the story illustrates that the old days of the FF, FG, and Labour stalwarts standing outside each polling station [...]

Some interesting motions at the PD conferance. The motions that have been making the news have been
Motion No: 24
That the Progressive Democrats should endorse a pre-election pact with Fianna Fail.
and
Motion No: 28
The current manual system of voting in Ireland has served the nation well, it has provided Ireland with a safe secure and transparent system [...]

Right, its a week when the teacher unions tell us how badly we behave and bemoan the shoddy government, a week when TDs dont go next nigh or near Dail Eireann, a week when the papers are filled with crap features filler.
Thats my rant over, not to the substance. We all love to lounge around [...]

If you know of any stories from your area. Be sure to drop us a comment.
Galway Advertiser
Greens are ready while other parties are in disarray
Ireland is little more than a year away from the next General Election but the parties in Galway West are in disarray. Unlike preparations for the 2002 elections, which were relatively [...]

European issues rarely form a part of Irish political discussions at election time, despite the growing importance of the Union for the voters. Oh, some of the detailed grievances will get an airing (the Nitrates directive for instance) but the bigger issues will be kept until we next have a referendum on a new treaty.

In the meantime, governments will carry on as usual: taking credit for anything popular the EU does and blaming the EU for unpopular rules. Ministers generally act as if EU Law is handed down from a group of ancient gods without mortal intervention. Critics will mutter about the “democratic deficit” and the Minister will shrug sadly at her lack of power. In almost every case the Minister in question agreed the new rules with her European colleagues, behind closed doors in a secret meeting of the EU Council of Ministers. Technically, there is no democratic deficit: every EU law is agreed by the duly elected representatives of the populations of the member states.

In a previous post. I talked about the Greens Plans to change the Presidency. United Irelander has found a bill doing just that and brought in on the same day so I guess it is the same one.
He believes that it will extend to right to vote in the Presidential election to people in the [...]

Whilst the rest of us will be looking for the quickest way out of the treaty city, the Progressive Democrats will be congregating here for their annual congress, which is to be held at the South Court Hotel.
Some of the issues on the agenda are reform of the health service, immigration and entering an election [...]

One of my favourite bands is Fleetwood Mac. Their greatest album has to be the 1977 album Rumours that dealt with the personnel tensions in the band. My favourite track of the album and indeed one of my personal all time favourites is Dreams. The mercurial tones of Stevie Nicks float through the air as [...]

‘Good and accessible’ childcare to bind communities - Ahern - Meath Chronicle Bertie
Ahern attended a Fianna Fail Rally in the area this week. At the invite-only event held in the Europa Hotel the Taoiseach launched the FF campaign in Meath East vowing to win two out of three seats with newly promoted Junior Minister Mary [...]

Meath Cronicle reports that Bertie was in town for Mary Wallace and Thomas Byrne’s Meath East campaign launch. Unsurprisingly there was talk of childcare, the topic which every single poll done in the region suggested was the major swing issue. So Bertie talked up the Government’s credentials with their new budget provisions for childcare etc.

I just want to draw your attention to the very nifty site Guth an Phobail by Ciaran Quinn.
The site includes an election simulator where you can experiment with opinion poll results etc. It’s sure to be of interest to the readers of IrishElection.com. I am aware it is in Irish but its intuitive enough to [...]