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

Via Neil on Twitter: Tomorrows RedC/SBP: ff 27, fg 34, lab 17, g 5 (all nc), sf 8 (-1), ind 9 (+1). Greens should leave govt 53%

The carefully phrased European Commission approval of NAMA under state aid guidelines is only the beginning of the process.  Bank of Ireland and AIB will still need clearance for the specific balance sheet clearance (NAMA sales plus capital injection) that are still to come.   In that regard, it’s important to look at the seemingly separate [...]

Fear and Loathing in Dublin – WSJ.com The Wall Street Journal says we have nothing to fear in voting No to Lisbon. It also takes a cut at our finance minister.

Maman Poulet » The Reasons Why? Political spice. I like it.

The EU Commission this morning approved the government’s NAMA proposal, clearing the way for the transfer of bank debt to the state. The amount of debt to be transferred, the value of the debt (on paper and in market terms) and the value of the write-downs have still not been finalised. It is perhaps not [...]

Trevor Sargent’s resignation as Junior Minister is a major blow to his party and to his Dublin North constituency, whose farmers feed the city of Dublin and amongst whom, irrespective of who they may individually vote for in general elections, he is both liked and well respected.

The Green Party continues to move from one pot-hole to the next. This evening Deirdre De Burca is backing up her concerns about the DDDA, which she says she raised with the minister, with personal e-mails released on her website tonight. The email to Minister Gormley in August 2009. The DDDA report is going to [...]

With a cabinet reshuffle in prospect and the need as advocated by Veronica that what is needed are people who are “competent in the business of job creation and enterprise generation and the stimulation of economic activity.” I reckoned I should sit down and do an update of a post from almost 3 years ago. [...]

If last week’s drama was about two minor politicians falling on their swords, this week supplied the end of a major-minor political career. ‘Major’ in the sense that Willie O’Dea was a Cabinet Minister, ‘minor’ in that one would be hard-pressed to root out any achievement of national significance in his long political career since O’Dea [...]

There will be days of digesting the implications of the Willie O’Dea resignation.  Here’s a few impressions of where we are; doubtless others have their own.

There’s the old line about the Bourbons when they got back in power after Napoleon that “they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing”.  Then there’s Fianna Fail.  The Willie O’Dea confidence motion debate today was mercifully short because it showed a government that, after years of scandals and concerns about conduct in public office, has [...]

Willie is racing through a statement a few minutes ahead of schedule with a sullen Dermot Ahern sitting beside him.  Enda Kenny says he will move a motion of no confidence in him.  And now on to Labour’s bill to reform parliamentary inquiries.  At least someone is working on improving accountability. UPDATE: Much like Willie’s [...]

How long before she is “that woman” in the corridors of Leinster House?  An all-guns-blazing statement from Deirdre de Burca in response to the Sunday broadsheet spinning about her resignation.  It’s one little detail after another (going back to Dermot Ahern’s blasphemy bill) but including this nugget – The Green Party had favoured Pat Cox [...]

A couple of days ago, we had a discussion about whether a Fiscal Policy Council could work for Ireland.  There is one basic problem: as such a council would imply reduced power for Fianna Fail, they’d never go for it.  Anyway, move along to another power that FF governments will never surrender: appointments.  Today the [...]

Simon Johnson (ex-Chief Economist, IMF, now at MIT) and Peter Boone (LSE researcher, also investment fund affilitation) in the Wall Street Journal (possibly $ req’d) – Even following Thursday’s EU summit, an orderly resolution of these problems seems unlikely. The Germans will push for draconian cuts to Greece’s government spending and public sector wages but [...]

4 days is a long time in politics.  Remember when the George Lee resignation seemed to dominate?  Deirdre de Burca in today’s Irish Times – In fact, matters have become more serious of late where Brian Cowen appears to have failed to honour two specific agreements that were made at the highest level (ie between [...]