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

O’Keeffe sought no advice before closing special needs classes
On the day he announces 2,500 training places for over 400,000 unemployed it emerges that Batt O Keeffe took no advice before deciding to close over 100 special needs classes. Who needs advice when you can slash budgets and engage in spin and cover tactics?

Apropos only 19 of 145 judges taking a pay cut, Niall Collins TD for Fianna Fail in Limerick wants a referendum:
“This group of elite untouchables should be subjected to the regular procedures administering the pay of higher civil servants. In the modern day being protected by the Constitution is simply not good enough given that [...]

Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen — now twinned on the decisions about when to hold a general election and referendum, respectively.

There is a conference on political reform in Ireland tomorrow (Monday June 22nd) in the arts block in TCD. Sorry for the late link, I thought this was widely publicised but it seems a few of the politicos on Twitter have only heard about it today.
Details are available here and here.
Entry is free but you [...]

They launched today. Supporters include Robbie Keane (yup, the footballer) and Seamus Heaney. Part of the civil society grouping network that almost everyone accepts will be needed to overcome the vote repellant that is Brian Cowen.
Website is failling here.
Update: The website is still a fail this morning, despite front page ads in national newspapers directing [...]

Green Ink is on hiatus – he wil be back soon

The letter worked it seems – as Cowen and Martin arrive home with a victory over intransigent EU leaders. Spin cycle set to overload for the next 24 hours. “Hard victory” “good deal for Ireland” “heart of Europe” and onward toward a new date for a Lisbon vote.
Agreement on the shape of the deal followed [...]

Ireland set to seek approval for Lisbon treaty if it wins legal guarantees – Times Online
The euro sceptic Times gives its take to Brian Cowen's semi-open letter to EU leaders.

So the new Lisbon deal will be formally agreed with our EU colleagues over the next couple of days.  The media coverage is going be particularly unreliable on this one, because the line to the media from Brian Cowen and Micheal Martin will be to show their efforts in extracting every possible concession and driving [...]

The case for a Grand Coalition at Gav Reilly | thinking out loud
Gav writes a lengthy post on the ins and outs of a grand coalition here between FF and FG

Joe Higgins is both a councillor and MEP in waiting. The dual mandate ban means that he has to pick one over the other – with the choice being made by Joe to head to Brussels and nominate a replacement in his council seat.
Only Fine Gael are miffed that he doesn’t take up the MEP [...]

Posted this on my own blog yesterday, so apologies for the cross posting. Should have put it here first!
Apart from the speculation on who will be Fianna Failure’s nominees for the two Seanad by-elections (caused by the death of Senator Tony Kett [FF] and election to the European Parliament of Senator Alan Kelly [LAB]), a [...]

So yeah, the facebook wall of John McGuirk, Libertas’ Irish press officer is below. I said Libertas was an organisational shambles last week, the downfall will reflect exactly why. Expect law suits to be splattered all over the place (edit: in fact, they already are being thrown about, a letter was sent by Simons’s solicitor to [...]

The second of a potential trio of votes, the Lisbon treaty referendum is provisionally pencilled in for late September according to today’s Irish Times. Micheal Martin is in Luxmbourg as part of the effort to get the Lisbon guarantees in place. The legislation for a referendum will pass the Dail before the summer recess it [...]

Budget cutrbacks reverse litter gains
The war against litter is the latest to be hit by budget cuts.

Student’s Wikipedia hoax dupes newspapers: report -
Journalists be ware