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

RTE’s summary of the Cabinet changes below.  Quick reaction: Brian Lenihan now the rapid riser (to Finance) after years of being arguably under-placed in Bertie’s cabinets.  But Cowen avoids the designation of an heir-apparent by splitting Tanaiste (Mary Coughlan) from the “great portfolios” (i.e. Finance and Foreign Affairs — Micheál Martin).  Dermot Ahern arguably demoted and [...]

The Offaly Independent reports that a massive caravan of Offaly folk will descend on the Dail today to celebrate the election of Brian Cowen to the post of Taoiseach (at around 3.30pm - live on Oireachtas.ie)
“There`ll be a festive atmosphere,” Tom O`Donovan of O`Donovan Cowen Solicitors, a firm in which Minister Cowen is involved, [...]

*Sub-Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Fine Gael Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs Bill Timmins met with the Foreign Minister of the Tibeten Government in-exile today and suggested that the visit of the Dali Lama to the UK (May 20-31) represented a great chance to have him address the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Why not the Oireachtas as [...]

It has been conventional wisdom that the rise in unemployment has primarily been related to the fall in the construction industry. The arguments of political and business leaders stress that the bulk of the economy is in good shape and we are simply going to have slower growth for a while.

Bertie revealed yesterday evening that he has been offered, or at least in discussion about, a role as an international conflict mediator over the course of his trip.
ON THE last day of his US visit, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern revealed that he had received approaches “at the highest levels” about a role for him in international [...]

The RPA released a consulation document today on the feasibility of a new Luas line ‘E’ from Dundrum to Christchurch, covering Terenure and Harold’s Cross. The proposal for line E was not included in Transport 21 but the RPA are hoping that the study will be included in a later revision of the project. It [...]

The CSO figures for April’s Live Register were released this morning, with Exchequer figures due out later today. The numbers only continue with the trend seen in recent months as the number of people on the unemployment list tends towards 200,000.
The number is without a doubt a worry for the government. We will be hearing [...]

Here is the five page executive summary of the report of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development looking at the management of the public service in Ireland.  Once you wade past the quasi-diplomacy on the first page and a half, it’s a damning indictment of how the public service has been run, albeit one [...]

A nice event for Brian Cowen — he gets to meet his fellow leader-in-waiting north of the border, Peter Robinson (no mention of what Ian Paisley said about his lips), and they agree on a scheme which will see the International Financial Services Centre extended to Northern Ireland via a modification of IFSC’s tax exemption [...]

Libertas have an outraged press release accusing the Irish government of a systematic campaign to hide information on the Lisbon Treaty based on what they call “an email from a very senior Irish official to his British counterpart” which the Daily Mail published today. Headlined the Treaty Con, this story is picked up by a [...]

The press releases today were absolutely hopping up and down to make sure everyone was aware that the French Finance Minister and the EU Tax Commissioner should be given no weight whatsoever when considering their comments on a common-consolidated-tax-base.

Brian Cowen released a statement in the last hour announcing his candidacy for the Fianna Fail leadership and succession of Bertie Ahern. It is interesting to see he was nominated by Brian Lenihan, a man widely tipped to have his eye on becoming the Brian Cowen’ to Brian Cowen and succeeding the next Taoiseach when [...]

The Live Register jumps 12,000 in one month, the biggest ever such increase for the third month in a row while the standardised unemployment reaches 5.5%.
International factors I hear you say? Then why has unemployment being falling over the past year in the EU and the industrialised world more generally?

There’s little doubt that Brian Cowen will be the next leader of Fianna Fáil - be it after contest or coronation. The real power struggle seems to be for the Deputy Leadership / Tanaiste Portfolio, which will put the recipient in a prominent position for the next leadership race, whenever that might be.

The time of the departure of Bertie Ahern has now been announced. What of his legacy, his place in Irish history? Here are some points that might be considered.

Reinstating the popular blog-roundup from the election for one night only to take a look at how today’s news was met in blog-land. Take a gander at Jazz Biscuit too in case I missed anything.
Ciaran Cuffe and his Green Party have come in for immense amounts of stick since going into government (even today, suggestions [...]