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

Irish Economic Growth contraction. From Irish Times
Economic growth in the Republic shrank by 1.5 per cent between January and March this year, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office this morning.
Growth rates recorded for the Republic during the first quarter 2008 showed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 1.5 per cent, [...]

This caused a Storm in Sweden recently.
Swedish media have erroneously reported that the EU plans to register and bill all bloggers, setting off a firestorm of reaction in the country.
And there is a lesson to all of us in the responsibility of the media there. But this part caught my eye.
Speaking to the EUobserver, Ms [...]

I am not sure if this is Austria playing hard ball with Brussels but Austrian chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer has said that if the Treaty text is changed for Ireland then Austria would have a referendum as well.
Also
Hannes Swoboda, vice-president of the Socialists in the EU assembly, told Der Standard newspaper: “It is not possible [...]

What? The price of a house on two offices? On a refurbishment?
The space needed renovation and cleaning, and according to figures obtained by RTÉ News, the OPW spent approximately €220,000 to do this and to fit it out with furniture. The work took around three weeks to complete.

A headline, and article, you don’t see that often from the Indo
Public job salaries falling well behind private sector rates
But wait there is more….
due to agreed terms in Towards 2016…
In civil servant jobs, such as accountants, architects or solicitors, the gap between the public and private sector is vast. Public sector employees can expect to [...]

It won’t be a surprise to Suzy but in echoes of Dermot Ahern’s own stated position in 1993, reports in today’s papers have a number of unnamed Senators and backbench FF TDs suggesting that this whole civil partnership thing is a bridge too far. Despite being greeted as one not far enough by all bar [...]

Missed this earlier today but didn’t spot it picked up here. Jamie Smyth got his hands on the confidential part of the Eurobarometer survey into the Lisbon result. The findings are interesting - also interesting they weren’t released. I would have guessed at who leaked were it not coming from Brussels correspondent.
LISBON: party supporters’ votes
[...]

We have been playing it for a while, though we are repeatedly at pains to point out that there was no single reason why this Treaty failed. Voters voted for different reasons. Anyway, over on his blog Jon Worth gives his two cents on who gets to shoulder the blame in Euro-ville.
The candidates? Charlie McCreevy, [...]

By a landslide in the Spanish Parliament, Lisbon was ratified today in Spain.
322-6 was the final vote with 2 abstentions.

The Empire of Rights
"Are Americans and Europeans simply more compassionate than Asians?" asks Ian Buruma. Asking why it is that Chinese and Malaysian warships are not sitting of the Burmese coast with food. Thought provoking? Or a bit prejudiced?

Cowen was giving a speech last night where he conceded that corrective action on the economy is likely to be “painful”. Not a great time for the ESRI to recommend a rise in Social Welfare to E230 per week across the boards, yet interesting to see them call it a priority in a time when [...]

One of the EU’s problems is that there is no shared Identity unlike the USA. This is something that is always pull back the EU from its goal of a closer union. So Janez Jansa’s solution? And EU soccer team.
While maybe not a solution it certainly is interesting to talk about so pick your starting [...]

You know the image.  There’s one house in the estate that’s always trouble.  Every time they walk in the door, the neighbours are looking through the curtains wondering what trouble will be coming this time.

Photo owned by art makes me smile (cc)
After their attempt last week to paint the lisbon no vote as an anti-abortion vote. The French have changed tacit. This time they are taking the Indymedia line
France’s Europe minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, has said that Europe has enemies in Washington, suggesting that neo-conservatives played a significant [...]

The Dept of Justice today released the heads of its proposed Civil Partnership Bill (PDF) (not as late as many assumed to be frank). Money quote:
Head 123: Cohabitant and qualified cohabitant
Provide that:
“(1) For the purposes of this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, ‘cohabitants’ means two adults (whether they are of the same sex or [...]

The Financial Times’ Brussels blog has a very interesting story about the manouvering taking place on European Commission numbers from next year. As we found out, Nice will govern the makeup of the Commission from January next year - rather than Lisbon.
This means there has to be less Commissioners than there are member states, prompting [...]