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

Following on from yesterday’s post about Libertas, Rivada, and the relationships between the two, Wagger has some more dirt to dish…or at least muddy water to sort of flick around the place.
First to Mr Ganley’s defence in today’s Irish Times.  (This time by Alison Healy, rather than Colm Keena, who wrote yesterday’s piece).

(Wagger has decided to return from self-imposed retirement due to having so much fun reading Colm Keena in today’s Irish Times)
Lots of discussion about Libertas and its links, overlapping memberships and possible influence from Rivada Networks today. As the most vocal of the groups opposing the Lisbon Treaty, Libertas can’t really feel it unreasonable [...]

Wagger notes that politics.ie are reporting that Pat Rabbitte will step down as Leader of the Labour Party today.

While Mr Ahern is certainly in pole position in the race to form a new Government, it would be unwise to rule out Mr Kenny’s opportunity at this early stage.
RTÉ have reported today that Jackie Healy-Rae, Finian McGrath and Tony Gregory have all been contacted by Fine Gael, but not yet by Fianna Fáil. [...]

“The Labour Party Will Struggle With Its Conscience. The Labour Party Will Win.”

Interesting times for Mr Rabbitte. Wagger believes that, with the aging profile of the Labour TDs, an FF/LAB Government is not out of the question. This is the last chance for such oldies as Costello, Quinn, Higgins, O’Shea, Stagg, [...]

Wagger is prepared to call a date for the Election - it’s May 17th.
Here’s the sums:

Wagger’s inbox has started to bulge with edited copies of the main party’s advertising. This could be a new role for the internet in elections, and one that the parties may or may not be happy with.
These are the two best so far:

And this:

P O’Neill made an interesting post earlier to IrishElection.com about the changing influence and roles of “Special Advisors” in both Ireland and the UK.  He referenced a particular post by Backword on the UK problems.
Our system is slightly different.  TDs have never had advisors/researchers on entering Government before (this election will be the first since [...]

The Indo must think they’re very smart.  However, it’s clear from what Rabbitte has shown on his own website (the text of the interview they conducted with him) that they’re misleading people.  They even claimed Brendan Howlin was keeping a “studied silence”.  So studied, in fact, that he’d gone to South Africa on holidays the [...]

Wagger is surprised that no one has written on IrishElection.com yet about Charles Haughey’s theft and embezzlement of at least €11m (accounted as €45m in modern terms by the Moriarty Tribunal).
The man famous for telling the Irish people to “tighten belts” during the economic and fiscal crises of the 1970s and 1980s—almost all created by [...]

Last night’s The Week in Politics - Frank Opinion was an interesting exercise, and will certainly have been watched eagerly by party hacks of all hues.  Wagger wagers that the Greens and Shinners will be very pissed off that the analysis of their leaders & chances was cut out due to time restrictions.
The reactions of [...]

There’s been an interesting trend in the recent TG4 polls conducted by TNS/MRBI compared to national figures being delivered by RedC and TNS/MRBI in the Sunday Business Post and The Irish Times respectively. Added to this can be the reporting in The Kerryman of two polls seen there.
There appears to be an increasing trend [...]

Not strictly Irish Election stuff, but Donald Rumsfeld has resigned.
The Republicans have themselves a scapegoat, apparently.  Expect jubilation from the liberals/lefties, despite their real enemy - Cheney - still being in power.

Adam asks why Fianna Fáil have been going on the offensive against Labour. Is it because they’re scared? Are they calling Rabbitte’s anti-coalition bluff? Or is it something else altogether?
Wagger believes that there is a soft vote that can transfer easily between Fianna Fáil and Labour. The average working Joe or [...]

Geraldine Kennedy (aka Madam, for those not up on the parlance of Irish journalism), writing in her Editorial in The Irish Times (subs required) today lets her exasperance get the better of her.
Obviously annoyed with the electorate for not punishing An Taoiseach in the polls following Bertiegate, Madam went on a rant about how the [...]

We’re now in week three of what has been, very unimaginably but almost inevitably, titled “Bertiegate”. Wagger wonders what scandals were called before Nixon sent his men into that hotel.
Is there a way An Taoiseach could have avoided all this trouble for himself?
A bit of basic crisis management would have gone a long way, Wagger thinks.