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

Is Budget 2006 to go down as another missed opportunity? With reports of the government having 2.7 billion more than expected at its disposal, there is a unique opportunity for the Minister for Finance Brian Cowen to make a real difference to the quality of life of those on the margins in Irish society. [...]

Without a doubt the last ten years has seen significant improvements in the Irish economy. However, despite advances made in our economy, it is quite clear that we continue to live in a society with glaring inequalities in areas such as income distribution, health, education and housing. Recent figures show that over 65,000 children [...]

I didn’t intend writing about the Environment this week, however the conference in Nairobi on the effects of climate change has put the environment at the top of the political agenda, albeit only for a brief period. Yet, here in Ireland, the main political parties continue to ignore the importance of this issue.

The general election campaign certainly seems to have begun in earnest this weekend, with the Soldiers of Destiny holding their Ard Fheis in Dublin. Most commentators were surprised at the level and viciousness of the attacks on the opposition by the Fianna Fail party faithful at this Ard Fheis. The Labour Party came in [...]

An interesting debate took place in the Dail last week on the Labour Party motion opposing the increasing privatisation of the health service and the consequent further development of the two-tier system of healthcare. This privitisation will result in the building of private hospitals on the grounds of public medical facilities and major tax [...]

The Labour Party is seeking a mandate from the electorate based on its election strategy, which was adopted by the vast majority of delegates at Party Conference and clearly sets out our preference for government. Despite the recent polls, it won’t be until much closer to the election that we will see whether people [...]

Seamus Ryan is a sitting Labour Councillor from Waterford. He actively blogs at seamusryan.blogspot.com and for the forseeable future will be writing a weekly column for IrishElection.com, looking at politics from the front line, as it were. In the interests of balance, his column is part of a pair where the second column is written [...]