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

From the Corkman 
Fianna Fail politicians have disclosed the highest proportion of donations at more than €94,000.
The Labour Party declared more than €40,000 and Fine Gael more than 24,000, while the Greens disclosed just €1,200 worth of donations.
Labour Senator Alan Kelly received the highest amount at more than €35,000, followed by former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at [...]

It is probably unfair that she is found out while public finance are in shit-street. Other independents who rejoin or join parties have kept the allowance (at least for a while) before giving it up. But Beverly manages to put such a brave face on these things.
FIANNA FÁIL backbencher Beverly Flynn has put herself on [...]

Peruse the diagram above. The green/yellow states are those voting with DREs with a voter-verified paper-trail (VVPR) (except in Tennessee, Colorado and Maryland where the relevant legislation has been passed but doesn’t come into force this year) and with/without (respectively) a paper audit-trail. The red-states are those requiring neither a [...]

IF you haven’t glimpsed the Sunday Independent, you can guarantee that the edited extract of a speech given by Junior Minister at the Department of Trade and Enterprise John McGuinness will be dominating discussion of the Social Partnership talks over the coming days. It remains unclear if the governmen is capable of steering a course [...]

Even before the Irish people’s democratic decision to reject the fatally-flawed Lisbon Treaty, (which would have deepened the democratic-deficit in Europe still further), the source of Libertas funding was a bane of “yes” campaigners. To the elite, the possibility of the ‘mainstream’ parties being so decisively outspent by this upstart pro-business [...]

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.

Bertie Ahern was delivering a speech to IBEC today where he admitted that since 2002 our competitive position has been considerable eroded by the strength of the Euro and price rises. He is still talking positive on the economy as it “enters a period of transition” but with consistent downgrading of expectations by major institutions [...]

(Diarmy.net) Here’s my take on the YFG poster campaign(Photos after the Break)

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 [...]

Guido notes the similarity between Berties parade around the ring at Ballybrit and the new initiative undertaken by Dave Cameron’s Conservatives to raise funds from the gee gees.
We all know the money donating and networking that gets done over at Galway races so we shouldn’t be too surprised to see it copied elsewhere
“So it is [...]

…but were they really beyond attack for their management of it?

They were joining in my head at the periphery but this morning, before getting stuck into some Ryle (as one does), I read a very good piece on the Finfacts blog. They (rightly) reminded us of the prevailing conditions within which the 2002 election took place. An international downturn was underway thanks in no small [...]

Brian O’Neill of Sportsspread.com told Slugger today that they have a seen a huge shift in money over the weekend in the political spread market. In just three days, Fianna Fail have had a surge in money, moving them from a predicted 63 seats up to 70. In the same period, Fine Gael and Labour [...]

Also known as Saturday’s Irish Times. The story most politicians and backroomers will chew over this morning is the dramatic figures which suggest nearly 3/4 of the electorate will not pay more tax in order to fund services. The data prior to this from Red C polls in the Business Post had the figure at [...]

Well it seems that since Bertiegate spilled over into Saturday, the bank holiday was extended to Tuesday to give a bit of breathing space. Still the FF machine are taking advantage of the pause by getting a policy out which migh be discussed. This policy relates to the creation of jobs and the primacy of [...]

Having spent so long giving out and setting himself against the Sunday Independent, Fine Gael, Labour and the PDs on this, it seems unlikely this was always in the plan for the manifesto. Some of the questions buzzing around my head on this this morning;