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

Via B&F – Reuters: McDaid has been calling for an early election and he has now written to the government chief whip to say he might be going against the government in future lower house votes, according to a report on Reuters. “I feel compelled to inform you that I have withdrawn my support from [...]

From the Irish Times CRITICS WHO blame the Government for the economic crisis should “dig the garden or grow bluebells or do something useful”, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said. In an interview, Mr Ahern attacked “cynics and knockers, people who always see the glass as half empty. I can’t understand people who are always [...]

When you have promised there will be no new taxes and then decide that promise is, in fact, complete tosh.

Thanks to the reader who flagged this to us. Eyebrows were raised in Brussels at the inclusion in Maire Geoghegan Quinn’s official biography of efforts to “set the facts straight about her relationship with another Irish politician, Charles Haughey”. The Fleischman blog in Brussels notes that the whole office was poring over this inclusion – [...]

Brian Cowen went to Intel today to announce that Maire Geoghegan Quinn will be given the Research and Innovation Commissioner at the new EU Commission. “In putting forward Máire Geoghegan Quinn as Ireland’s nominee for the new Commission, I felt that a candidate of very strong credentials and experience would help us to get a [...]

From RTE Taoiseach Brian Cowen said: ‘This overwhelming negativity needs to stop because it’s not in our national interest to see that continue. ‘It is portraying our country as incapable of coping when in fact all of the success we had in the past was not illusory. ‘It is the community spirit that I have [...]

Follow the digest on twitter. It truly is the most horrific litany of abuse. There will be posts to follow this evening – the report is available from here. With a digest from the IT here. Readers might like to take a look at the means they have for allowing themselves to lie to the [...]

If you have a few minutes, read the 2008 Annual Report of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.  The 1st paragraph – We will develop Dublin Docklands into a world-class city quarter, a paragon of sustainable inner city regeneration, one in which the whole community enjoys the highest standards of access to education, employment, housing and [...]

The OECD report on Tax Burdens in terms of GDP for 2008 was released 2 days ago. Where does Ireland fall in terms if taxation burden compared to GDP? Excluding Australia, Netherlands, Japan and Poland.?

It has been the most horrific hammering for the country west of…well just west really. There are a litany of stories of properties destroyed, farmland under 7ft of water, county towns and villages like Shannon Harbour cut off from the country. Road-diversions due to flooding themselves being flooded. Our second city hasn’t got potable water [...]

The role of a Trade Union is to look after its workers interests to make their lives better. One of the biggest worries for alot of people (public sector workers anyway who don’t have to worry about if next months pay cheque is coming) this time of year is when to get the christmas shopping [...]

C4 invests in political blogger Slugger O’Toole | Media | guardian.co.uk Congrats to Mick and the gang on what looks like a very interesting proposition. Keen to see what the investment will mean longer term.

According to the Village Magazine he is. Brian Lenihan is top while Vincent Browne at 62 is more influential than Garrett Fitzgerald at 63. 1 Brian Lenihan Minister for Finance, part-Cambridge-educated, former Trinity constitutional law lecturer and barrister. 2 Brian Cowen Taoiseach, former Minister for Finance, and one-time solicitor.

NAMA is law since yesterday when our President upheld the national interest and signed off on bailing out banks. What is that I hear? Protests that it is not a bailout? Well have a look at this: Royal Bank of Scotland is poised to spark a diplomatic row with Ireland by attempting to dump £7 [...]

Labour recently came out with their new energy policy document . Now it had a few interesting bits and pieces and lots of generic waffle. But they do talk about Nuclear power. We consider that nuclear power is not an option for Ireland at present on financial,environmental or technical grounds. Now that really doesn’t tell [...]

[edit: We were 2 days ahead of the Indo and unlike them, we provide original sources for the quotes.  Read on ...] The Cork flood.  From the technical yet fascinating “Flood risk management through reservoir storage and flow control” (2001) by J. Fitzpatrick and T. Bree of ESB International – A study was undertaken by [...]