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

Not sure what to make of this press release from Fianna Fail but here it is.
Call for ‘the Simpsons’ Irish premiere to be held in Springfield, Tallaght - O’Connor Local Fianna Fáil TD, Charlie O’Connor, is calling on Irish film authorities to host the Irish premier of the new Simpsons film in his home [...]

It seems the Mary Harney will remain as PD leader. Is that wise should new blood have been given a shot. Surely now is the time to give someone else a moment in the spot light. Mary Harney is not planning to remain party leader in the long term and they desperately need someone to [...]

The EU released a statement this afternoon outlining that it is to proceed with an investigation into the practice of subsidising Dublin Bus and CIE generally. Though the commission point out that they are only investigating they do outline three areas of concern to them where Ireland may be breaking EU law. These are;

Compensation provided [...]

We are been linked to by a BBC Welsh blog.  If anyone can  tell us what  it is all about please do.

Looks like we gotta get a new poll then, ideas in the comments. Gormley was elected on 64.5% of the vote to Patricia McKenna’s 35.5%. There was a turnout of around 60%. Some intimated that the level of McKenna’s support was some insight into disaffection within the Greens, yet no indication of what level of [...]

In the past ten years the construction of houses and other dwellings has far outstripped demand, yet prices have grown at unprecedented rates.
From 1996 to 2006 the number of occupied households in Ireland (dwellings with one or more residents), increased by 346,300 units. At the same time, 611,961 new dwellings were constructed. This leaves a [...]

Earlier this evening, Questions and Answers flirted briefly with the issue of the Irish language, following the leaking of a report which predicted the end of Irish as the Gaeltacht’s lingua fraca within twenty years. Eamon Ó Cuív was asked whether he was embarrassed that only 46% of students in Gaeltacht schools can speak the [...]

The Magill Summer School is a regular agenda setter during the slow news period of July/August. This season is unlikely to be any different and Frank Flannery’s speech as reported in the Irish Times bears out two important points about the election earlier this year. First out is that PJ Mara was, once again, correct. [...]

In what might still be the endgame of the planning tribunal’s investigations of Bertie’s finances, chairman Alan Mahon has today ruled against Bertie’s legal submission on Friday that the Celia Larkin AIB deposit issues were outside its terms of reference. So for now Bertie’s appearance as a witness concerning the deposits will go ahead [...]

I have been saying it here for a while now.
Ireland is the least violent country in Europe, according to a new study by the World Health Organisation. The research compared murder and assault rates across 27 European countries. It found that Finland has 1.96 killings per 100,000 people, while the Scottish rate is 1.75. In [...]

John Gormley has a trait of posting that he’s going to lose an election due to ’safe seat syndrome’. The Green Leadership election is no different it seems. Coming home to canvass after a meeting in Brussels, he discovers most members have voted already and have voted for his opponent Patricia McKenna. He predicts [...]

The Green’s have got out of the blocks fast and got one of their major idea’s in the process of being implemented. The idea of a directly elected Dublin Mayor and more power to local councils. And this has been hailed in many quarters as a good thing. But I think it [...]

A Big Day in the North…or so Black Grape had it… back in 1995. So, what’s up next week? Why, the British-Irish Council meet, and as Gerry Moriarty writes in yesterdays Irish Times:
First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness are scheduled to greet Gordon Brown at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, on [...]

They cannot be blamed for any of this but the move by Tom Parlon out of public life to head up the Construction Industry Federation could bring another headache for them in terms of the constant jibes they have been taking from the opposition benches. In their manifesto and at conference the Green Party committed [...]

The obituary writers will be out in force tomorrow, as Tom Parlon’s decision to leave the PDs sinks in. The former Minister of State will take up a post with the Construction Industry Federation- more on the ethics of this move anon. Mr. Parlon seems intent on sampling all the delightful interest groups that hold [...]

Tom Parlon is leaving politics to head the Construction Industry Federation (was he not head of public works). So who does that leave for the leadership race? Colm O’Gorman, Liz O’Donnell an O’Malley, some one else?
Update: Colm O’Gorman has put his hat in the ring on Newstalk