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

The Irish Times and RTE say that a team from KPMG Netherlands office is doing an assessment of Anglo Irish Bank’s options, with one option apparently being a wind down.  At some point we’ll have to do a complete list of Brian Lenihan’s statements about Anglo Irish over the last 14 months, but it has [...]

Well not really, but he does want a replay after the abomination of a handball by Thierry Henry last night. Mr Ahern, a passionate soccer fan, called for Fifa to be called to account in the interests of fair play. “They probably won’t grant it as we are minnows in world football but let’s put [...]

Cowen talks about the latest “AIB controversy”.

Govt nominees set for Seanad election Sen Niall O Brolchain

Govt nominees set for Seanad election Sen Niall O Brolchain

Govt nominees set for Seanad election Sen Niall O Brolchain

The EU Commission has just published a special survey on how Irish citizens voted in the second Irish Lisbon Treaty Referendum and why. Check it out here (PDF). Headline findings below the fold.

We’ll probably never know who leaked word of the plan to pay over the salary cap by shifting an internal candidate already above it into a quasi-CEO position.  But the row over salaries is a sideshow compared to AIB’s interim management statement today.  It’s worth a read.  Among the highlights:   If you’re used to [...]

Damien Mulley is running a free half day session for on Online/Social Media for campaigning groups and NGO’s on December 8th. Facilitated by the European Commission Office Dublin*, this free half day event on the afternoon of December 8th is designed to help NGOs to decide how best to utilise web resources to communicate and [...]

Maire Geoghegan Quinn’s statement on her nomination to be Ireland’s next commissioner is below the fold.

The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen T.D. announced this afternoon that Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, currently the Irish member of the European Court of Auditors, will be the Government’s nominee for appointment to the next European Commission.

On the day it emerges that AIB will merge the position of chief executive and chairman – contravening pretty solid principles of corporate governance – and install Dan O Connor in the position from within the bank, Brian Lenihan’s credibility takes a further dent as he comes bottom of the pile in this year’s ranking [...]

Last Week ( I was on Holiday in Bruges last week. Like a F**King fairytale) so I am a bit behind the news. But anyway last week the government announced.Taoiseach launches €150m plan for ‘smart schools’. Every classroom in the country is to get a teaching laptop, software and digital projector over the next three years [...]

The Tribune led with this in their business section yesterday – Anglo seek an additional €5.7bn if it is to resume lending to the ordinary public. This comes on top of the €4bn that has already been poured into the bank – a figure which we are looking to cut from our own budget this [...]

Would it make a difference to our political outlook if we freed up space for political ads from parties and vested interests? A BCI report to be published today thinks it would. I am inclined to agree – running a blog like this. The clash of opinion is always a good thing, newspapers do an [...]

In the background of our recent posts having gone to the same place as Brian Lenihan’s April revenue forecasts, consider this quote (page 11) from his pre-Budget report – Next year, the investment-to-GDP ratio is projected to fall further so that higher private sector savings are expected to move the current account into surplus. Effectively, [...]