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

With Sean Gallagher now taken out of his Presidential hopes, convicted fuel-smuggler and Gallagher-accuser Hugh Morgan has changed his story for a second time. He now says the invite to the FF fundraising event may not have been issued by Gallagher at all, but by former FF TD for Louth Seamus Kirk. Kirk himself says [...]

The Evening Herald has claimed that SF Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness is the main suspect in the murder of two policemen gunned down in an IRA ambush in Derry: SINN Fein Presidential candidate Martin McGuinness is the main suspect in the brutal murder of two policemen, the Herald can reveal. Sergeant Peter Gilgunn (26) and [...]

Update: Gallagher on facebook denying he is man in a 1992 photo cited on David Cochrane (of politics.ie)’s twitter page. Sinn Fein’s allegations linking Gallagher to a cheque for €5,000 for FF have been undermined following the revelations that the accuser has convictions for cross-border fuel-smuggling and tax-evasion and leased his General Election HQ to [...]

Recent months have seen the issue of prostitution come to prominence as the Presidential election approaches. A disturbing parallel with the Lisbon debate is evident in the near unanimity of the political and intellectual ‘Establishment’ for a blind support of traditional policy approaches. How can someone simultaneously claims the mantle of liberalism while also attempting [...]

Opposition is emerging from some Labour and FG TDs, Labour councillors to the prospect of a FG-Labour Coalition. Dublin MEP Proinsias de Rossa has said the party ‘should be prepared to go into Opposition’ if FG refuses to implement elements of Labour’s “Social Democratic Programme”. Former Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Energy and Natural Resources [...]

With the moratorium on election-reporting only applying to broadcasters, the Irish Daily Mail is today reporting the findings of internal polling by FG: Seat totals: FG 82 Lab 30 FF 22 SF 14 ULA 4 Grn 2 Ind 12 Constituencies of interest: – Laois-Offaly to be only 2-seat FF constituency. But second seat “shaky” – [...]

With 3 national-polls in succession leaving open the prospect of a FG-majority or minority-government, a unique opportunity presents itself in Irish politics for the first time since 1932 – the prospect of an alternative government that does not involve the Left and their Big Government, tax-and-spend, Dublin 4, Left-Liberal elitism. That is an opportunity that [...]

Courtesy of Adrian Weckler of the Sunday Business Post: FG: 38% (+3), Labour: 20% (-2), FF: 15% (-2), SF: 10% (-3), Greens: 3% (+1), Independents: 14% (+3)

The latest by-election poll from Red C (conducted for Paddy Power) in the Donegal South-West by-election campaign confirms SF on target to take the seat: Pearse Doherty (SF) 40% Brian O’Domhnaill (FF) 19% Barry O’Neill (FG) 15% Frank McBrearty (Lab) 14%

Thanks to politics.ie. FG 31 (-2) FF24,(nc) LAB 23 (-4) SF 10 (+2) GR 3 (+1) Oths 9 (+3) Underlines volatility of Labour vote. Also public satisfaction with Brian Cowen is 19% to 64% dissatisfied and 17% undecided. 29% are more likekly to vote vote FF with Cowen replaced, including 21% of FG and Labour [...]

In a week when the use of forged documentation in the asylum-system was highlighted with the rejection by the Supreme Court of the appeal of Nigerian asylum-seeker Pamela Izevbekhai against her deportation, FG and Labour are proposing the allow asylum-seekers to work. Despite 13% unemployment and mass-emigration – Alan Shatter and Pat Rabbitte are now [...]

Concerns have been raised at plans by the Government of Saudi Arabia to establish a school with an Islamic ethos in Dublin, according to the Irish Times. The plans have been announced in Arabic on the website of the Saudi embassy in Dublin which opened in September. From the Irish Times on Wednesday: According to [...]

The Czech PM, Jan Fischer, appears to have backed down in his struggle with President Vaclav Klaus over ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. President Klaus has refused to sign the Treaty since it was ratified by both houses of the Czech Parliament last May. Asked during a walkabout on Sunday not to put his name [...]

With the impending Green conference on the Programme for Government on Saturday, much speculation surrounds the fate of the Government and the possibility of an early General Election perhaps within weeks. Such speculation is ill-informed, and smacks either of wishful thinking, ignorance of the Constitution, or both. I predict with near-certainty that there will be [...]

The German Ambassador to the Czech Republic exerted pressure on the Czech Chief Justice on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, according to Czech Newspaper “Euro“. Two weeks before 17 Senators filed a new complaint against the constitutionality of the Treaty before the court, the German Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Johannes Haindl reportedly pressed Czech [...]

The UK hedge-fund manager Crispin Odey, who an Irish Independent article claimed had “bankrolled” “Declan Ganley’s ‘No to Lisbon Campaign’, has rejected claims by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan that he is funding the Libertas “no” campaign. In a fax to RTE and TV3 dated 30th September 2009 and seen by me, Mr Odey demanded [...]