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

This week the focus is on Iran and Dr Claire Spencer head of the Middle East Programme at Chatham House talks to Inside Out. Check out the podcast here. My fault on the delay this week, apologies.

Governments in the west spend over $300 billion a year on farm subsidies. Think about that figure. Imagine what could be done if that figure was invested in health care in the third world? But not also is it diverting finds that could be used for better means it also hurts people in [...]

Don’t prop up property, ESRI warn or so goes the RTE headline. But should the government do something else other then just ignoring it. Recently Global Entrepreneurship Monitor says Ireland has third-highest level of early stage activity in EU but development to high-growth firms lags. Yet we have a high dependence on Foreign Investment  [...]

Update all save Ned O’Keefe were excused.
Last night there was 8 people missing from the vote. You can see the list of the voters in the no confidence motion last night. The following did not vote.
Barry Andrews FF , Seamus Brennan FF , Pat Gallagher FF, Michael P Kitt FF, Ned O’Keefe FF, Dick [...]

The departments of an Taoiseach and transport have made available the report of senior officials on the Shannon-Heathrow route along with a press release from the government  summarising the report and outlining next steps.  The press release is the usual blather and jargon but the detailed report is actually a little more substantive, indicating that [...]

I believe one motion on Shannon has been defeated by 1 vote. 68 to 67.  Watch or listen live.

Enfer the mystery sponsors of the Tipp hurling team are going to create 12o new jobs in Kildare.
From Fin facts Irish economy contracted in Q2 2007; GDP grew 5.4% and GNP by 4.5% in 12 months to June; Balance of Payments deficit fell.
Irish housing starts down 22% in H1 2007 compared with 2006; 50,000 [...]

You can check out the Confidence in Taoiseach: Motion debate here.  One thing I noticed was how lacking the opposition are at making speeches. I remember watching the debate over Thursday voting and cringing. Listening to Enda Kenny last night with his stop start delivery and I have to wonder what he is still doing [...]

Quite a day down at our second chamber, perhaps slightly less so in the first. Alex White and Pearse Doherty were uncontentious and professional. Perhaps a little nervous if anything. Shannon loomed large throughout the afternoon.
And it has to be said that there were quite a number of younger faces there. Which is probably good.
Eoghan [...]

Edit by Cian (17:00): The debate is live on the Oireachtas website and has just begun, vote due at 8:30.
Tonight’s forthcoming Fine Gael tabling of a motion of ‘No Confidence’ in the Taoiseach of Ireland, currently held for the third successive and historic time by Bertie Ahern, TD, will no doubt be watched closely by [...]

In today’s Leader’s Questions Gilmore asserted that he doesn’t believe Ahern’s version of events on his finances as presented before the Mahon Tribunal. Gilmore put it to Ahern at leader’s questions, “I think your story at the tribunal was a cock and bull story” and that he “can’t take the people of the country for [...]

Bertie speaking about Mahon etc now

The CSO figures released today show that planning permissions for the second quarter of this year are up 25%.  This is interesting as this was the time around the election where there was talk of a drop off in housing due to talks about stamp duty. It will be interesting to keep an eye on [...]

When I saw this headline (Sinn Féin condemn shooting of Garda) in the Party news section of this site. I thought to myself. Oh my god could this be true could this finally be Sinn Fein standing up like any party would and condemning the murder of Gerry McCabe. Alas no.
Sinn Féin [...]

Economist anoraks will delight in all the data in the IMF’s latest assessment of the Irish economy.  The summary is here and the detailed report is here.   The report was written in July and so doesn’t cover the blow-up in credit markets since then.  But there’s a prescient observation about the banking system.

Tomorrow’s a big day for political junkies; the return of an Dáil after the summer recess and the first chance for the opposition to weigh in - and the Government to defend itself - on Ahern’s tribunal performance, Aer Lingus’ exit from Shannon and all the other ills that afflicted the country over the not-so-sunny [...]