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

Exchequer figures were released by the dept of finance in the last few hours.
Don’t worry, I’ve no wince-inducing chart this time.
Main points, Exchequer deficit now stands at €14,709,153,000 (€14.7bn), this time last year it was €5.6bn.
So, more than doubled between Jan 08 and Jan 09, ouchies.
It should be noted however that €3bn of that increase [...]

Last night the government put forward plans to invest in jobs to the trade unions as part of the social partnership plans. The fund will initially consist of a €250 million investment with a possible pot of €1bn in theory.

Much of page 12 in today’s Irish Times is given to follow-up articles on yesterday’s conference on political reform. Like most conferences, it had its good parts and…
I spent the day in a bunker-like lecture hall deep in the bowels TCD’s Arts Block listening to highly-informed journalists and academics. The vast majority of the speakers were either insightful, educational or [...]

Apropos only 19 of 145 judges taking a pay cut, Niall Collins TD for Fianna Fail in Limerick wants a referendum:
“This group of elite untouchables should be subjected to the regular procedures administering the pay of higher civil servants. In the modern day being protected by the Constitution is simply not good enough given that [...]

With a week to digest the election results, the Green Party might be credited with an emerging strategy to take into their negotiations for a renewed programme for government and, in theory at least, the second part of the process of government for however long it lasts. It was assessed here and elsewhere that the [...]

“Tabloid politics” was how Mary O’Rourke described the Dail Debate on the Confidence Motion. And she was right.
There was no policy discussion of merit – apart from Brian Lenihan’s effort – about where we are going and what we need to do to get there. Insults were liberally traded on all sides. Enda Kenny dubbed [...]

Today at 12.00 from the Garden of Remembrance. Sign the petition and bring a white ribbon if you are attending.
Today’s order of business in the Dail is the worst political failure I have seen:
10.30 a.m.
* Leaders Questions
* Motion re Confidence in Government (to conclude at 5.30 p.m.)

This the first in a series of posts written members of political parties. Irish Election contacted members of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, Labour and The Green Party who are active online and asked them to provide a post of between 600 and 1000 words on the brief “Why you should vote for X Party’s candidates in the European elections”.

I will post them in the opposite order to how we posted the party political broadcasts, two today, two tomorrow. That means the Greens are up first then Labour, Fine Gael after them and lastly Fianna Fáil. Other parties are welcome to submit posts to my personal email as seen on my website (easier keep them all together). Deadline is noon tomorrow and not a minute later. Posts must be written by party members who are not standing for election.

Written by Andrew Murphy. Andrew is based in Galway, a former chair of the Young Greens and national co-ordinator for the party.

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This week almost 400 million voters will go to the polls to take part in the biggest exercise in representative democracy after India. However, this event should not just be celebrated as an example of Europe’s peaceful transition – it should be treated as an opportunity to shape Europe, and its role on the world, in the coming years. You will not just be voting for “Ireland’s team” in Europe, you will be voting for men and women who will have a profound impact on this continent. This is not a decision to be taken lightly.

Blink and you would miss it, a speech written to get traction with the press on how Cowen is ‘getting a grip of the campaign’ and taking it ‘by the scruff of the neck’ to bring his demoralised troops over the line kicking and screaming. Like when he intervened in the general election 2007, the [...]

Their half-year results blew people out of the water, Anglo Irish bank has set aside €4bn to cover losses it expects to make on loans, mostly advanced to property developers, along with another 235 million euro in losses on various investments.
The Minister for Finance, effective owner of the bank, reveals that the government will look [...]

I guess this is part of the Brian Lenihan tour of uncomfortable media hotspots, a feature in today’s Guardian with Economics Editor Larry Elliot. The tone is remarkably conciliatory, cautious and even underwhelming.  Stark contrast to the irrepresible talk of green shoots, doom mongers and Lehman Brothers from the party when talking for domestic consumption.
There [...]

Yesterday we had plans for apartment dwellers (can you canvass them?), plans for the unemployed (well 2,000 of the almost 500,000), plans for retraining those on part-time, opposition policies for Dublin and for small business. Calls for tax cuts and incentives – woo hoo for voters! You would think it is a general election.
A cautionary [...]

It is feeling like 2007 all over again, the place is at fever pitch out on the canvass, people are taking politicians down a peg, a whole peg! Fianna Fail are trying but they are being beaten about the head by the news agenda, their partners in government and the party leader’s inability to grab [...]

If there is one thing you should do today it’s buy The Irish Examiner. Go, g’wan, buy it. Even if you’re not from Cork. Even if you’re not from Munster. Feck it, go and buy it if you’ve never bought a paper or watched the news before. Please, for the good of the country, buy [...]

Dan Boyle spoke in Tralee today. The tone is very interesting. Here’s quotes pulled from the press release, my emphasis added…
“There are too many unresolved issues. Too many policy errors remain that have not been admitted to, areas where responsibility has not been taken. The policy of pump priming the property boom has been a [...]

Fianna Fail Councillor Nick Killian, from Meath, hasn’t completely removed the Fianna Fail logo from his leaflets (see PDF), but you would be forgiven for thinking he had. In an interview with the Meath Chronicle he gives a pretty horrific review of the party under Ahern and Cowen and the scale of the mess Fianna [...]