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

For going on 5 years now I have been living in the UK. For the first few years you still feel attached to home. Still keep as up to date with the news as you would if at home. But then as you begin to realise that the news back home has very little impact [...]

In the run up to the election much of the talk was whether or not Fine Gael could get an overall majority. As the dust settles it is clear that they are just short. So where did they fall? One place they will look back at is Kildare South.

The excellent book Preventing the Future posed the question of why Ireland was so poor for so long however it did not really answer that question. It answer the question: “How” was Ireland so poor for so long. It outlined the mistakes made by all governing parties in the period 1920-1960 and how they impacted [...]

For the past 4 years I have lived in the UK so I have not been able to have my say on the path of my country. So the nearest I can do to that is post it on a blog that about 4 people will read. (Hi Mum) . This will be the third [...]

Now obviously none of the reforms any party is proposing is going to be implemented. In 10 years time we will have the exact same political system. So I thought I might as well make up some of my own. Some or all of these could be recycled. In most countries with a party list [...]

Much is made of the under-representation of women in the Dail and many people have been calling for gender quotas to be brought in. However little consideration is given to what the imposition of quotas mean. What signal do they send out.So first lets look at the claim that women are under-represented in the Dail. [...]

One of the over looked aspects of the last week was the calling of the election for the 11th of March. The significance of that date is that it is a Friday. Now traditionally Irish general elections are on a Thursday. Back around the time of the last general election we started a campaign called [...]

According to TV 3 News Brian Lenihan has been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Update by Cian: The later post to this has been removed following complaints. The Department have not confirmed the story and we will wait until they do so. This post stays up to note that TV3 are reporting the minister is ill. [...]

The NAMA board has been released. Former chairman of the Revenue Commission Frank Daly Steven Seelig [ed. former IMF officer.] Brendan Mc Donagh of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), now interim managing director of Nama, is to be the chief executive of the agency. The other members of the board are financial consultant Eilish [...]

From the Independent IRISH Nationwide chief executive Michael Fingleton fasttracked millions of euro of loans to leading politicians, it was claimed last night. These included a €1.6m loan to former finance minister Charlie McCreevy, who was buying a property that was only worth €1.5m at the time, an RTE investigation found. The loan was granted [...]

From the Irish Times THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) told the Government that the definition of “long-term economic value” on bank loans in the draft Nama Bill was “masterful” as it was “sufficiently specific” and “sufficiently vague” to allow “appropriate flexibility”. Steven Seelig, an adviser at the IMF, made the comments in an e-mailed response [...]

You might have heard about the Herschel Telescope of late. If not possibly because you only consume Irish media basically it is the largest telescope ever to be put in orbit. Some recent images showing the cosmos in never before seen detail have been released. Scientists are raving about this because basically, it can tells [...]

From Dublin City Council. Dublin City Council last night voted in favour of a motion by Councillors Tom Brabazon and Críona Ní Dhálaigh that will oblige developers give new estates in the city names in the Irish language only. The names of the new estates in Dublin city will reflect local history and topography. Now [...]

Paul Gogarty is not the most famous Irish TD. Certainly not the most famous in the Green Party. Of their 6 TD’s he probably is the 7th more famous (Senator Dan Boyle) . But now he will be at least 6th most famous. The advent of the internet means that what might of been a 1 [...]

In what is more then likely just a PR stunt Fianna Fails Marie Hoctor told the Nenagh Guardian. that she will not vote in support of the Government’s budget this Wednesday in the absence of certain commitments in relation to issues in her constituency. Ms Hoctor indicated that she was growing disillusioned with the direction [...]

A curious thing of late is the use of English references to degrade an opponents. Previously it was Alan Kelly MEP with his references to 700 years, Kilmainham Gaol and the Union Jack a press release that even now looking back on is shocking. But that has not been the last of it. In two recent releases [...]