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

I was home to the Kingdom over the weekend and noticed that posters had sprung up about the place. Mainly diamond shaped Cosaí for Kerry ones on poles (including in Glenbeigh which I thought was a bit cheeky) and larger 6×3 footers for John O’Donoghue and Tom Fleming. Then as I passed through Croagh on [...]

I was watching Mary Coughlan on Q&A this week and since I’m of roughly a similar vintage to Mary it struck me when she was talking about upskilling and the knowledge based economy that she’s never really had to do any of those things herself. And not just her. Just look at the work background [...]

Following on from Wagger’s example

I wonder with the new RED C poll (see here and p.ie) if the chances are increasing of a snap election (or perhaps a Spring election)? I was watching the news and it struck me that the tone of Harney’s comments about the hospital consultants was the sort of thing that the government might use [...]

I’m curious as to what the media definition of a hung dail is these days. They are trying to tie Pat Rabbitte in knots asking him what he will do if the Dail is a ‘hung’ one but it would seem the media can’t decide what a hung Dail is. The idea of a hung [...]

It occurred to me that there some major difficulties being overlooked by those who are predicting that FF would be certain to cut a deal with Labour after the election if the numbers add up.FF is telling the world on the not so QT that Labour will do a deal if the numbers add up. [...]

[Originally posted at Dan Sullivan] Part of the basic problem with risk equalisation as the government have chosen to implement it is that the vast block of older people with health insurance who simply didn’t move. Why was that? Could it be that many people are actually members of group schemes rather than individual members [...]

Back at the Blogging the Election conference, an idea crept up on me of using YouTube and cheap video technology to bring the real Irish politician to light. The idea in essence is see if the people standing for election are as generically amenable as they often seem to portray themselves as being. After all, [...]

I’ve been talking with some people (I believe that is part of the vernacular for this sort of thing) and have decided that in the interests of highlighting a particular issue which I believe warrants attention and which spans party boundaries that I would put myself forward for election for one of the NUI seats [...]

I’ve been meaning to do something like this for a while, but was concerned about the overhead involved. Then this morning in the space on hour I heard 3 stories from government party members all calling on the government to do something! So this is for them – Why can’t the government do something? You [...]

The case which has lead to the voiding of a section of law intended to protect children from sexual predators is another example of a failure to plan or anticipate outcomes. Surely, the judicial system including the AG’s office and the dept of justice was aware that this case was coming before the Supreme Court. [...]

Ireland once had what was termed a 2 and 1/2 party system. It might be now said to have a 2 and 7/8s party system.The Irish electoral system has by in large been kinder to the larger parties in terms of seat bonuses when comparing to the smaller parties.. Both FF and FG have benefited [...]