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

A thread on boards.ie has been the source of some impressive citizen activism in the last week and it seems the campaign there is just getting started.
As some people already know, Dublin City Council recently signed a deal with advertising group JCDecaux which would see a number of advertising panels erected on the city’s streets [...]

Thomas Byrne TD will be familiar to blog readers. The newly elected TD competed via blog and on the ground with Dominic Hannigan for votes last May. Anyhow, turns out his former speciality was solicitor specialising in EU law and in a public message on the blog he is inviting voters (I doubt he could be that picky [...]

So Brian Cowen continues to slowly dismantle the Bertie Ahern machine (on which note, anyone see a Fianna Fail ‘Yes’ poster with Cowen’s face on it?). The announcement that the construction industry wont be dining in Ballybrit will be greeted with delight in the offices of the Green Party and Finian McGrath as a potential [...]

I’m one of those people who hasn’t quite decided which way they’re going to vote on in the referendum. This is because I haven’t got around to reading all of the text I’m voting on yet. However, there’s one incredibly stupid argument the no camp is bandying about right now. It’s an argument that does [...]

Bloggers rejoice as John has this news over on his blog.
Yet Rock the Vote are launching their campaign on May 19th (or so I’m told)! Well after the day and date of the vote has been decided on and less than a week before the closing of the voter registration date.
What are they at?
Only got [...]

“To me, services for cancer patients are worse now than they were seven years ago in the midlands”
…
“I am writing out of a deep sense of despair and frustration…I have written to senior management about seven times in the last two years…outlining how we would deal with the problem…all to no avail”

James Reilly of Fine [...]

Bertie-hooray, Enda & Eamon-boo. Below is the Fianna Fail response to the gains it has seen in the Irish Times and Sunday Business Post over the week. As you can see, it is thrilled with its performance but it strikes me that this is also a boot that they have been waiting to apply for [...]

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 [...]

Bord Pleanala has laid a bed of nails for Minister Gormley. They have granted permission for the Poolbeg incinerator to go ahead with a capacity of 600,000. The inspector report recommended that the incinerator should only have a capacity of 500,00 tonnes at the most but DCC want the 600,000 to make up the shortfall [...]

There was a mixed report on jobs growth and unemployment from the CSO’s Quarterly Household Survey today.. The growth in jobs is around 3.3% which is very healthy in an EU state but considerably slower than at many points in the last five years. Similarly with unemployment at 4.7% it has risen over the last [...]

Simon Coveney in today’s Examiner following the not so wonderful RTE expose on high-society drug use.;
“It’s a running joke on the corridors of Leinster House: which minister is the cocaine user. Mr Ahern needs to sort it out.”
An answer is ready made, drug test Dail Eireann. Rather than continue with the farcical behaviour and finger [...]

Well not quite, but it is hard not to think it after Bertie was talking this afternoon about ‘wage restraint‘ and ‘reaslistic approaches‘ to financial policy.
It is however that time again, the two-year post-election-win belt tightening budget.

In a case that could prove very interesting, Thomas ‘Slab’ Murphy has had over £1.5 million worth of assets frozen and the Times Reports that there may well be £15 million worth of bills accruing. ‘Slab’ Murphy is a huge figure on the Republican landscape, described by Liam Clarke in the Times as “Chief of [...]

It seems a happy coincidence that last week John Gormley announced national capacity for waste incineration in 2016 would be 400,000 tonnes and only two plants and today An Bord Pleanala give Indaver permission to increase the capacity of the Meath project and bring the capacity of their two plants in Cork and Meath up [...]

The examiner has an interview this morning wit former TD and now senator Fiona o Malley. She suggests that Harney will have stepped down as leader by early next year. She is quoted as relishing the role of leadin the PDs should the committe investigating the rules rule in her favour.
As a senator she is [...]

Speaking at the launch of the Merchants Quay Ireland 2006 report, Junior Minister for Drug Strategy Pat Carey suggested the government may look at implementing a needle exchange programme nationally. The programme seems prompted by the volume which the smaller Merchants Quay project deals with. Last year nearly 40,000 visits to the programme were logged [...]