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

During a discussion back in 2002, John Gormley certainly didn’t hold any punches when it came to a sum of £30k and a Taoiseach who misled the Dail. Ah, how times change. I guess Gormley would now say “That was then and this is now.”

Tánaiste accuses FG of witch-hunt

Whats that old phrase? You can get more done on the inside than on the outside p**sing in. Well Ned is back in as of this evening, to much rapture and delight but no ministry for a while. Should this be taken as a vote of confidence in Minister Harney then?

A little less than a year ago, if you can remember back that far, we were all in thick of pre-election mania. Irish Election was buzzing with successive posts on the important matters of the day. Some were brilliantly incisive, bringing keen analysis far beyond the abilities of many journalist hacks, but most were just [...]

A sizeable portion of the Moyross housing estate in Limerick is located in Limerick County Council territory. This area could now be a part of the city as early as next week when, as recommended by the Fitzgerald Report on regeneration and tackling social exclusion in Limerick.
However, twenty years after the estate was built, [...]

The New York Times on birthright citizenship in Ireland, when the parents are illegal immigrants. It’s a big issue in the USA too.

A number of European leaders have been going through a difficult patch: President Sarkozy, Taoiseach Bertie, Prime Minister Brown and caretaker Prime Minister Prodi. But spare a thought for His Serene Highness Johannes Adam Ferdinand Alois Josef Maria Marko d’Aviano Pius von und zu Liechtenstein, Sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein, Count of Reitberg and Duke of [...]

From Green Party. Release Betancourt says Davidson, as anti-corruption activist enters seventh year in captivity
Nice to see one party strong against corruption.

From RTE.
Tánaiste Brian Cowen has accused Enda Kenny of sounding more and more like Napoleon in Elba, drawing up plans for wars he lost, as he criticises the Taoiseach.
Didn’t Napoleon escape Elba and eventually lead France again?

While his row with John Deasy was the one which caught the headlines, the interesting comments from Willie O’Dea last week were his comments on the Chinese involvement in Chad’s civil war:
The rebellion is supported by Chad’s powerful neighbour, Sudan, whose regime is in turn by the Government of China.
…
Approaches to the Chinese authorities would [...]

Am I right in thinking that there are two distinct ‘party lines’ emerging as Ahern continues to get hauled through the Mahon Tribunal?
The first is the all-out defence of Martin Mansergh et. al. refusing to even countenance any possible wrongdoing by Ahern and willing to defend to the hilt Ahern no matter what evidence emerges [...]

Says Cllr Maurice Ahern - brother of Bertie - of the Sunday Tribune front page story which suggests he has been critical of Dublin Central Fianna Fail’s accounting practices in the past, adding weight to concerns raised on Friday;
“The story states that I was critical of financial accountability in Dublin Central Fianna Fail.
This is [...]

Judge Mahon.  What sounds like an incredible day at the Tribunal is unfolding.  Bertie’s strategy of alternating between seeming cooperation with the Tribunal while letting Conor Maguire level the accusations has finally drawn the Judge out of his cautious mode.  With the phrase “political donation for personal use” destined to enter the political lexicon (and [...]

The Progressive Democrat’s new leader should be in office in little under two months time, at present it looks like Cannon and O’Malley but there may well be one or more additional figures to go forward. Nominations for the post will close on March 5.
Edit: To add the procedure for voting will be a postal [...]

So with the new leadership election due with the PDs what should they do about their main policy platform the economy. This is what is going to make are break them. They veered off it recently going after Justice and Health and they got broke. So what they need to do.
First off they have to [...]

Bertie Ahern has so far avoided “pleading the 5th” at Mahon today.   But he hasn’t needed to, being able to draw on a host of undocumented intra-family transfers and yet more dead people in order to be vague about where the money was coming from.  Today’s it’s the £10,000 in the Irish Permanent, consisting of [...]