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

Man, it’s hard just to live. Bank of Ireland Private Banking has just produced its second ‘Wealth of the Nation’ report, which is a strange title because really it’s about the wealth of a tiny fraction of the nation. According to the report – the top 1% holds 20% of all the wealth of the [...]

It is well and truly open season on the Green Party. In their first private members session Fine Gael moved a motion condemning hospital co-location. Their next motion dealt with the Ringsend incinerator. It would be nice to think the largest opposition party intends to drive new public sector and environmental agendas – but it [...]

Welcome to the new government, same as. . well, the old government. At least when it comes to the economy. Much commentary has focused on what the Greens got, didn’t get and if what they got is really what they got. This has, understandably, been confined to little more than bullet points, as the full [...]

One can sympathise with John Gormley’s despair at the prospect of five more years of opposition, especially coming from someone of his political calibre. But coalition-forming and political alignments are about something more than individual skill. Good progress has been made in discussions between the Greens and Fianna Fail according to the Irish Times. Certainly, [...]

Keep these two numbers in mind: 37% and 67%. The Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union published a comprehensive analysis of the electricity market and, in particular, the reasons behind the huge increase in recent years in electricity prices, entitled ‘Through the Looking Glass’ – an apt title given the Alice-in-Wonderland polices the Government has [...]

Ireland into the 21st century – with such a bewildering speed and transformation that future historians will rely on the refrain of ‘all is changed, changed utterly.’ Even the prospective power-sharing alignment in the North only confirms, and conforms to, this modernisation. The exception, of course, is the Republic’s stubborn maintenance of the [...]

Last night the Dublin City Council, after an acrimonious debate, passed a ‘Living Wage’ motion, put forward by Cllr. Eric Byrne. The City Council condemned the prevalence of low wages, stated the minimum wage was inadequate, and committed itself to using its procurement powers to drive up wages in the private companies it buys [...]

It may not be as sexy as the debate over the Celtic and Christian character of Irish society, but the issue of endemic low-pay in the economy is one of the biggest ‘sleeper’ issues coming up to the general election. That it may not get an airing owes much to the personality-driven, issue-free nature [...]

Pity the Labour Party. They have bent over backwards to insist they will not raise taxes. The first issue of their free tabloid, The Rose, stated baldly on the front page, ‘Taxes are low and will stay low.’ They have entered an election pact with a party that details all the taxes [...]

Budgets are like viewing an impressionist painting but in reverse: the closer you are the more clearly you can make out the image, the further back the more vague and indistinct. Stand far enough back and all you see is the frame. With budgets, instant analysis and frenetic comment eventually gives way, [...]