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

For many, it had seemed plausible that Fianna Fail would climb Lazarus-like back to the low-20s in vote share. Thus far, the polls have mired the party on 15% under new leader Micheal Martin and if that is where they stay, a local poll for the Irish Times in Cork North Central suggests the party [...]

Did you know that when it comes to the financial sector, Ireland has “stronger oversight and better regulation”?  That’s the sales pitch from Billy Kelleher TD who has the Trade and Commerce portfolio within the department of enterprise and employment.  It’s a quote from a Financial Times story which says that Ireland is marketing itself [...]

[edit: We were 2 days ahead of the Indo and unlike them, we provide original sources for the quotes.  Read on ...] The Cork flood.  From the technical yet fascinating “Flood risk management through reservoir storage and flow control” (2001) by J. Fitzpatrick and T. Bree of ESB International – A study was undertaken by [...]

Well he may have to, looking at todays poll numbers. Dr John Sheehan from Cork wants to be a Fianna Fail councillor. And he promises not to take any of the €16,000 salary in his first year. Instead he wants it diverted to fund a day care centre. Probably the best value you will get [...]

This is the Sixth in a series of posts looking at who would or would not keep their seats if an election was called now. With not much  local polling to go on this is entirely my opinion and probably wrong. If you have any ideas on it please drop a comment. Cork East 

From Fianna Fail CORK TEXTERS TO BENEFIT AS EU CUTS MOBILE COSTS – MINISTER MICHEÁL MARTIN, TD “There will be significant reductions in the costs of text messaging and downloading data, such as pictures, home movies and audio following the decision of the European Parliament to reduce costs.” “The savings for Cork phone users will be [...]

The Oireachtas has today launched a detailed profile based on the 2006 Census of all the constituencies in the country. The information is quite interesting and comprehensive and details all 42 constituencies in the country.

Dan Boyle was selected last night to run for the Green Party in the Euro-South constituency next summer. The senator’s work will be cut out for him getting into one of the three seats. The field is likely to have two sitting MEPs who won in 2004 and a third who was parachuted in for [...]

If it weren’t for the fact that we are in the middle of an international crisis of global proportions in the uncharted waters of unpredictability (ed – that is enough hyperbole), the government would be getting covered in other forms of excrement. Not least due to the admission that:  ”high proportion of existing schools are [...]

Dempsey urges talks in rail dispute

There are two small but interesting pieces in the Irish Times today concerning Labour and the PDs. The PDs are meeting in Galway today in a meeting organised by Noel Grealish to discuss future direction. Though the meeting is due to be “councillor-driven” and Mary Harney won’t be present it is interesting and symptomatic of [...]

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 [...]

It seems the horses are getting jumpy in the Fianna Fail stable. On Morning Ireland, Noel O’Flynn suggested that it might be an opportune moment for Bertie to consider making a statement on the events of last week. Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Mr O’Flynn said: “In order to clarify a number of issues [...]

The report of the 2007 Consituency Commission is out, some would say a little bit too late but how and ever. Kerry is to remain split, with Kerry South a 3 seater while Kerry North joins to West Limerick in also remaining a 3 seater. Dublin Euro is a 3 seater, Dun Laoghaire is a [...]

RTE are reporting that Amgen has put their plans for a factory/facility and an additional 1,100 jobs in Cork have been put on hold indefinitely. Rumours had been around Cork for a while that this was the case but as recently as last month the company were simply saying their would be a delay in [...]

This is according to people talking to Mulley from CUH. In addition to cutting back on cleaning in the hospital and charging staff for parking, the source says they are freezing hiring until December or January not September as implied by the HSE in their early October review. In order to cut down on costs, [...]