Written by Cian on May 7th, 2008
4 comments »
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, [...]
Written by Cian on May 2nd, 2008
6 comments »
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 [...]
Written by Cian on April 2nd, 2008
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The two areas of Irish life and politics, understood widely, that are likely to feel the fallout of Ahern’s announcement today are the Lisbon referendum - for a myriad of reasons, not least the implication an FF leadership race has for setting a date and the distraction from debate said provides - and the worsening [...]
Written by Cian on April 2nd, 2008
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*it wasn’t really. Nor the entire media for that matter. It has been de rigeur for defenders of an Taoiseach in recent times to present the media as the enemy here. If it were not for them this would not be an issue, Ahern and his Ministers would continue to govern in their efficient inimitable [...]
Written by Cian on March 12th, 2008
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It strikes one as serendipity - for the opposition at least - that the Dail debates a motion on the three reports from last week into Port Laoise, the one that gave rise to the Naughton letter and entered ’systems-failure’ in the political lexicon by failing patients in a grotesque multiplicity of manners while the [...]
Written by Cian on March 11th, 2008
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This post actually started a while back, the last time Bertie mentioned we would be tightening our belts this year, I decided to finish it because he mentioned it again yesterday.
We know that the US is as good as in a recession, their central bank doesnt seem to have much capacity to stall the bad [...]
Written by Cian on March 6th, 2008
5 comments »
While no date has yet been set, we now have the wording of the Lisbon Treaty Referendum. It isn’t readable, short or simple but it seems to cover much more of the bases than a simple adoption of the Lisbon treaty - designed as it is to deflect worries about creeping EU statism. Even though [...]
Written by Cian on February 20th, 2008
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There is a constant ratcheting up of pressure on this issue for Hanafin. This afternoon John Gormley and some Green paty representatives met parents of autistic children and promised to raise the issue of provision for ABA with Minister Hanafin (link once I get one-heard on radio). Niall’s ABA post is still very active over [...]
Written by Cian on February 16th, 2008
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If there is any element of good news out there for a party down to its vamps, it is that there will at least be a contest for the leadership. After it appeared that senior party figures were united in their desire not to lead the party, both Senators announced after the meeting today that [...]
Written by Cian on January 26th, 2008
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The trend since the election has been the return of the 2+ party system and this poll does little to dispel that impression. Following closely on the Irish Times poll midweek, there is good news for both of the big parties in today’s Sunday Business Post poll. Fianna Fail are up four to 36% while [...]
Written by Cian on January 26th, 2008
3 comments »
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 [...]
Written by Cian on January 11th, 2008
21 comments »
Update: Below is a press release from Solus, the light bulb crowd about their meeting with Minister Gormley yesterday. They are not complimentary;
It was revealed today during a meeting with the Minister that his department had not put any proposals together on what lamps would be included in the ban and how he proposes to implement [...]
Written by Cian on January 10th, 2008
8 comments »
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 [...]
Written by Cian on November 28th, 2007
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The Dail vote results are in and the Government have defeated the motion of no confidence in Mary Harney as Minister for Healty by 83-73 with Ned O’Keeffe abstaining. O’Keeffe had circulated a speech which he was prevented from delivering. It decried the state of the health service and the treatment of patients according to [...]
Written by Cian on November 24th, 2007
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Labour are going to introduce a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Health Mary Harney in the Dail next week. Details of the motion are below the fold.
We ask everyone to contact their local FF/Green/Indp TDs either by phone,fax or email and ask them to support the vote of no confidence in Harney [...]
Written by Cian on November 22nd, 2007
6 comments »
James Reilly is calling for the Minister for Health Mary Harney to resign after it was revealed that the misdiagnosis scandal in Portlaoise continued to claim more unfortunate victims. I think the problem is getting beyond the Minister in this case though, Professor Brendan Drumm is also getting roped into the politics of this scandal [...]