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

It would be foolish to completely rubbish the newly-announced plans to introduce road safety classes to Transition Year students as any move in that direction is a positive one; but the whole thing does leave you asking ‘is this it?’

Here is the five page executive summary of the report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development looking at the management of the public service in Ireland.  Once you wade past the quasi-diplomacy on the first page and a half, it’s a damning indictment of how the public service has been run, albeit one [...]

One of Bertie Ahern’s home stretch events today was to launch the Dublin Airport Authority’s plan for Dublin Airport City.   Not to put too fine a point on it, this seems like one of the crazier proposals to have emerged over the last year, and symptomatic of much of what is wrong with governance and [...]

Indymedia has a very interesting piece on Anti-Lisbon Treaty group Libertas, and their principal backers, Declan Ganley and Ulick McEvaddy. Well worth a read.

Dublin City Council is considering the merits of imposing a “tourist tax” of €1 per night on beds in hotels, hostels and B&Bs in the city in order to raise additional revenue.
Ignoring the fact that this is the taxation equivalent of licking your plate clean after large a steak dinner, there are many questions that [...]

Update: Turbalence Ahead blog links to a recent study by UCD on the causes of drinking in Ireland. Although using UCD as a sample of the population probably is not the most scienctific measure. These are some of the causes.
- if the student attended an all boy full boarding school
- if there is a cricket [...]

The papers are still covering the Kathleen Lynch scandal the Indo has
Meanwhile, Ms Lynch repeated that she deeply regretted any hurt caused by her letter, but stressed that she would not be resigning and hoped to draw a line under the matter.
Of course you want to draw a line under it. Because you seriously messed [...]

From the Irish TImes.

“Having heard an interview with one of the victims in the case, who was clearly distressed by my letter and having considered the matter and discussed it with colleagues, I now accept that it was inappropriate for a TD to have become involved in any way in a case of such seriousness.

So [...]

By 50% + to 49% +
Congratulations to Ciaran Cannon on a personal level but asking the obvious question but how did the votes really play out? Because that is what will determine if the party unites behind him or goes its separate ways. I acknowledge that I’m guessing here but if I’m wrong about one [...]

Pope discusses child sex abuse by Catholic Priests at National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, nose grows, cricket appears on shoulder.

There are a few people blogging out there on the Lisbon Treaty and the referendum, but there is - to my knowledge - only one person going through it forensically - Ralf Grahn, a Finnish lawyer. While I wouldn’t be in accord with all of his views, his work on this is first rate and [...]

“Only one country in the world has eliminated the shortage of transplant kidneys. Only one country in the world has legalized financial payments to kidney donors. That country is”… Interesting piece from the Marginal Revolution. Hat tip to the Foreign Policy blog.

Hopefully they won’t burn themselves out. The Irish Pirate Review is only a few hours old, but is producing excellent stuff - their take on the de Rossa story is hilarious.

“If I tell ‘ee that most chroniclers hold that the Republic be a landlubber economy, you will laugh the joyless, sardonic laugh of the true sea dog.” So opens the Irish Pirate Review, a satirical version of the Irish Left Review.

A nice event for Brian Cowen — he gets to meet his fellow leader-in-waiting north of the border, Peter Robinson (no mention of what Ian Paisley said about his lips), and they agree on a scheme which will see the International Financial Services Centre extended to Northern Ireland via a modification of IFSC’s tax exemption [...]

Libertas have an outraged press release accusing the Irish government of a systematic campaign to hide information on the Lisbon Treaty based on what they call “an email from a very senior Irish official to his British counterpart” which the Daily Mail published today. Headlined the Treaty Con, this story is picked up by a [...]