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

It worked for Nice II; interesting release from Joe Costello about the involvement of groups that may be linked to Justin Barrett. Tried to get a photo of the offending posters today but my mobile didn’t get the text-thanks to Simon McGarr for the photos on CC.
“Over the past few days a huge number of [...]

With a month to go to the Lisbon vote, I am going to do a number of weekly round-ups of bloggers views on the Lisbon Treaty. Starting off with Michael Walsh’s Yes to Lisbon blog which has the first of a number of posts which will be on the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Politics.ie legend, [...]

When Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair last summer, he was hit by the floods and then the foot and mouth outbreak — and went up in the polls. Brian Cowen might need a similar trend over the next couple of months. With Lisbon and the economy already looking like the hot potatoes of [...]

Bock has been following this for a while and gives his take on the Morris Tribunal report over on the blog, he is not impressed with the Gardai, neither is Justice Morris and neither is Jim Higgins.
Considering he was being moved on, it is clear that Lenihan was covering for any successor in dumping this [...]

RTE’s summary of the Cabinet changes below.  Quick reaction: Brian Lenihan now the rapid riser (to Finance) after years of being arguably under-placed in Bertie’s cabinets.  But Cowen avoids the designation of an heir-apparent by splitting Tanaiste (Mary Coughlan) from the “great portfolios” (i.e. Finance and Foreign Affairs — Micheál Martin).  Dermot Ahern arguably demoted and [...]

In a packed Dail chamber, Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach of Ireland after a vote to choose between him, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore. The vote was won by 88 to 76.
He was nominated by Bertie Ahern himself however it only became quite raucous as Mary Harney seconded Cowen’s nomination and defended the government’s record [...]

Ivan Yates on RTE says all the money has been on Dempsey for Finance while Coughlan and Lenihan split the money for Tanaiste.

Fine Gael are criticising Brian Lenihan for a bit of news dumping today. The annual report of the Morris Tribunal into Garda misconduct in Donegal was released today amidst all the furore surrounding the ascension of Brian Cowen to the post of Taoiseach and perhaps Lenihan’s own promotion to Tanaiste. They have a point, this [...]

The Offaly Independent reports that a massive caravan of Offaly folk will descend on the Dail today to celebrate the election of Brian Cowen to the post of Taoiseach (at around 3.30pm - live on Oireachtas.ie)
“There`ll be a festive atmosphere,” Tom O`Donovan of O`Donovan Cowen Solicitors, a firm in which Minister Cowen is involved, [...]

Just a short post linking to this BBC story apparently drawn from Paris and Brussels gossip about the candidates for the position of EU Council Presidency — a job of course whose existence later this year is dependent on Ireland passing the Lisbon treaty (and if the No votes spikes up with each round of [...]

There are a large number of reasons I will be voting Yes in the forthcoming referendum. Some are to do with Ireland’s European experience to date, which because the changes are largely technical in nature, is a valid reason to vote yes. To a large extent, Lisbon serves as primarily as a lubricant for the [...]

Seamús Brennan has informed Brian Cowen that he won’t be putting himself forward for the incoming Taoiseach’s cabinet following speculation that he was for the chop in tomorrow’s reshuffle.
Legend has it that Brennan was not supposed to even be in Bertie Ahern’s cabinet of 2007 but he saved himself by taking the lead in the [...]

Following in Young Fine Gael’s footsteps, the Labour party have announced a competition with a €1,000 prize for a 1 minute video extolling the virtues of the Lisbon Treaty. Unfortunately for the likes of me, while it appears to be open to raving right wingers, it is confined to those in second and third level [...]

Its is all eyes on Cowen now as Bertie signals the end of his time at the top with today’s events in the Boyne Valley. Most interesting will be the signals sent to those who were thought to be his competitors in the leadership race - Michael Martin, Dermot Ahern and, to a lesser extent, [...]

*Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Fine Gael Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Bill Timmins met with the Foreign Minister of the Tibeten Government in-exile today and suggested that the visit of the Dali Lama to the UK (May 20-31) represented a great chance to have him address the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Why not the Oireachtas as [...]

It has been conventional wisdom that the rise in unemployment has primarily been related to the fall in the construction industry. The arguments of political and business leaders stress that the bulk of the economy is in good shape and we are simply going to have slower growth for a while.