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

Breaking: Bertie Ahern to resign Tuesday 6th of May.
10:30am: Bertie Ahern has announced a last-minute, unexpected press conference to be held before his statement to the Dáil.
Reports on the substance are mixed although many outlets are suggesting that a resignation date, or even an immediate resignation from the leadership of Fianna Fáil, is expected.
RTÉ One [...]

A little less than a year ago, if you can remember back that far, we were all in thick of pre-election mania. Irish Election was buzzing with successive posts on the important matters of the day. Some were brilliantly incisive, bringing keen analysis far beyond the abilities of many journalist hacks, but most were just [...]

The bankers reassure us that “new lending continues to moderate in a mortgage market that is still growing in overall terms.”
Translated, this means that people, mostly young people seeking their first home, are flocking to buy houses at prices they regard as realistic. (Irish Independent editorial, 14 February, 2008)
So. The spinning continues.
The above quote comes [...]

Since we don’t yet have a firm date for an Irish vote of any kind, we might as well look at elections somewhere else for some material. In today’s Irish Times, Breda O’Brien (subs. req’d) takes a look at the US election and in particular the apparent phenomenon of Evangelical voters looking for a [...]

I finally got my hands on it. I had trouble finding it anywhere on the internet, so someone may have already beaten me to it.
Anyways here it is. Pee Flynn destroying his political career in one interview. The quality is not the best as it was recorded on VHS nine years ago, but it is [...]

Eamon Ryan was on RTE this morning and said that it is time for a full debate on the merits of nuclear power in Ireland. In light of the decision which seems to be coming today in the UK to begin upgrading their nuclear power generators. A debate which has been called for a while [...]

Front page of The Examiner this morning; “Obama Deals Hillary Second Blow”
To run or not to run…….

Thanks a million to Simon for inviting me to post here on Irish Election. I hope to contribute regularly. For my first trick…(I also posted this to my own blog as I want as much feedback as possible).
Myself and my friend have put together a test version of a Mahon Tribunal podcast.
It’s about 30 [...]

The housing market is beginning to show initial and tentative signs of recovery, with prices expected to rise again outside Dublin before the end of 2008.
Since the reform of stamp duty by Finance Minister and Tanaiste Brian Cowen in the Budget on December 5, there have been initial indications that, although the slump has not [...]

More than 266,322 houses, flats and holiday homes lie vacant in the Republic — enough to house a million people, the Sunday Independent has learned. Housing Minister Batt O’Keeffe claimed two weeks ago that much of the present problems in the housing market was caused by rogue builders who are “sitting” on finished properties as [...]

The decision of first-time buyers to defer purchases has seen a boom in the rental market, with rents rising to an all-time average high of €1,400 a month nationwide.” (Irish Independent, 28 November 2007)
…Rents are strong in Ashbourne thanks to its relative proximity to the capital and the major expansion of retail business in the [...]

Last week I posted a survey of the first one hundred properties listed on Daft.ie for rent in Dublin, as taken from the Daft site on 30 November 2007. Below is a survey of the next one hundred properties taken on the same day. It shows that in two weeks:
17 out of 100 properties have [...]

Property in Ireland - its sale and rental - is not just a social issue, it’s a political issue. And it is covered by journalists as a political issue. Recently we saw a highly publicised campaign by the Irish Times and the Irish Independent to see stamp duty cut. The argument was that stamp duty [...]

Eoghan Harris is due to square up against The Irish Times’ Fintan O’Toole for the second time tonight when they go head to head on RTÉ’s Prime Time (which has just started on RTÉ One and can be viewed online).
The two came to blows around election time on Matt Cooper’s election coverage on Today FM [...]

The health debate culminating in the no-confidence motion in Mary Harney is already heated and likely to get more so.  If the pivotal leaders debate before the last election was Bertie at his vote-getting best, then the cut-and-thrust of Dail debate illustrates the less pleasant side of his character.  Consider this RTE account of what appears to have [...]

Some of the arguments made in this satire piece by The Onion ring a bell.
Remind you of anything?