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

According the Irish Times the date for Lisbon II will be set for Friday October 2nd. It’s not a weekend and it would be preferable to have this vote at a time that suits many people. Nonetheless this is the date we have.

The letter worked it seems – as Cowen and Martin arrive home with a victory over intransigent EU leaders. Spin cycle set to overload for the next 24 hours. “Hard victory” “good deal for Ireland” “heart of Europe” and onward toward a new date for a Lisbon vote.
Agreement on the shape of the deal followed [...]

So the new Lisbon deal will be formally agreed with our EU colleagues over the next couple of days.  The media coverage is going be particularly unreliable on this one, because the line to the media from Brian Cowen and Micheal Martin will be to show their efforts in extracting every possible concession and driving [...]

One of few journalists to call CU for Dana in 1999 has called the third seat in the Northwest euro constituency for Libertas leader Declan Ganley:
Ten years ago this week, I was the only reporter to ‘call’ it for Independent candidate Dana Rosemary Scallon in advance of the Connacht-Ulster European election. Fianna Fáil and Fine [...]

Update: The legendary personality is Polish activist Lech Walesa
Libertas’s conference kicks off soon in Rome, you can watch online. You really should becuase we hear last night;
Big name Guest Speaker at Libertas convention Friday May 1st
Just a quick note to say that a legendary personality will speak at the Libertas convention in Rome [...]

Naoise Nunn, former Libertas director during the Lisbon treaty campaign, has an interesting appearance today in the Irish Times. Despite the party polling at 2% in the latest Business Post poll, the Chairman appears to be hanging his hat on a few high-profile scuffles between his candidates and sitting MEPs to generate profile.
Ganley has his [...]

As BNIFFO-gate rumbles on, it’s easy to forget that the European Union is essentially in crisis today.  People are racking their brains to remember the last time that a government collapsed while holding the EU Council Presidency, but the Czech government has certainly picked a most inconvenient time to do so: half way through its [...]

So the Declan Ganley European tour is on stop number 2 today in France. Announcing his French candidates for the EU Parliament Viscount Philippe de Villiers, Frédéric Nihous and Jérôme Rivière. 
Out of the three you probably have only heard of De Villiers. He is quiet the controversial guy and supposed creator of the term “Polish Plummer” in the [...]

The Independent reports that Cabinet has debated (one would hope they had) running the Lisbon Treaty vote alongisd the Local/European vote on June 5th. There are a number of reasons this would be a good idea, it would save the cost of two elections and prevent the period from April-October becoming one long canvas, minimising [...]

Brian Cowen chose to use his Dail Anniversary speech to forge a link between the first Dail in 1919 and Ireland’s role in Europe. Under the wider topic of republicanism Cowen addressed partition, Europe and the wider economic downturn.
It is a starting gun on raising the profile of the EU’s role in stabilising the country [...]

At the time of the first Lisbon referendum, Declan Ganley marched out on front of the cameras with three tickets for the leaders of the pro-Lisbon parties. We were, Ganley told us, to send these politicians back to Brussels to renegotiate the treaty. Many journalists mistook Ganley’s pro-social behaviour for a political stunt. After all, cheap stunts are to politicians what concrete blocks are to builders, but these commentators failed to remember that Ganley is not a politician.

Today or tomorrow we hear about the re-running of the Lisbon treaty.
Around 12.00 Irish time Declan Ganley takes to the stage in Brussels and launches the Libertas brand as a cross-European party.They are sending a signal of immense confidence – you need to have the following rules in mind for funding at an EU level [...]

Our economic woes may be at an end – Suzy has the scoop.
The package will be all about the three T’s – ‘Timely, Targeted and Temporary’. It will include proposals for tax cuts, fast tracking of Structural Funds to stimulate growth, and a percentage of GDP (maybe 1% or maybe not) from member states. There [...]

Sarah Carey lifts the lid on the Lisbon campaign from inside the Sunday Times. This one, as they say, has juice with a second referendum coming up – always good to get the narrative up and running early.
Politicians and commentators who argued for the Lisbon Treaty did so because they believed it was in Ireland’s [...]

Brian Cowen is talking to the EU Legal Service about drafting opt-outs and protocols to make the Lisbon Treaty “palatable to the Irish public” according to Jamie Smyth and others this morning.
Cowen, who said the France, which is the current president of the EU, had also asked the Council of Ministers’ legal services “to see [...]

Many thanks to Stretch (he reads Hot Press so we don’t have to!) for pointing us to the recent interview with Declan Ganley, the chairperson of Libertas.
You might have seen Mr. Ganley on the Late Late Show on Friday night last, he has also been in Brussels recently. He’s getting ready for Lisbon the [...]