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

Irish Economic Growth contraction. From Irish Times
Economic growth in the Republic shrank by 1.5 per cent between January and March this year, according to data released by the Central Statistics Office this morning.
Growth rates recorded for the Republic during the first quarter 2008 showed that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 1.5 per cent, [...]

This caused a Storm in Sweden recently.
Swedish media have erroneously reported that the EU plans to register and bill all bloggers, setting off a firestorm of reaction in the country.
And there is a lesson to all of us in the responsibility of the media there. But this part caught my eye.
Speaking to the EUobserver, Ms [...]

I am not sure if this is Austria playing hard ball with Brussels but Austrian chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer has said that if the Treaty text is changed for Ireland then Austria would have a referendum as well.
Also
Hannes Swoboda, vice-president of the Socialists in the EU assembly, told Der Standard newspaper: “It is not possible [...]

A headline, and article, you don’t see that often from the Indo
Public job salaries falling well behind private sector rates
But wait there is more….
due to agreed terms in Towards 2016…
In civil servant jobs, such as accountants, architects or solicitors, the gap between the public and private sector is vast. Public sector employees can expect to [...]

Missed this earlier today but didn’t spot it picked up here. Jamie Smyth got his hands on the confidential part of the Eurobarometer survey into the Lisbon result. The findings are interesting - also interesting they weren’t released. I would have guessed at who leaked were it not coming from Brussels correspondent.
LISBON: party supporters’ votes
[...]

We have been playing it for a while, though we are repeatedly at pains to point out that there was no single reason why this Treaty failed. Voters voted for different reasons. Anyway, over on his blog Jon Worth gives his two cents on who gets to shoulder the blame in Euro-ville.
The candidates? Charlie McCreevy, [...]

By a landslide in the Spanish Parliament, Lisbon was ratified today in Spain.
322-6 was the final vote with 2 abstentions.

You know the image.  There’s one house in the estate that’s always trouble.  Every time they walk in the door, the neighbours are looking through the curtains wondering what trouble will be coming this time.

Photo owned by art makes me smile (cc)
After their attempt last week to paint the lisbon no vote as an anti-abortion vote. The French have changed tacit. This time they are taking the Indymedia line
France’s Europe minister, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, has said that Europe has enemies in Washington, suggesting that neo-conservatives played a significant [...]

The Dept of Justice today released the heads of its proposed Civil Partnership Bill (PDF) (not as late as many assumed to be frank). Money quote:
Head 123: Cohabitant and qualified cohabitant
Provide that:
“(1) For the purposes of this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, ‘cohabitants’ means two adults (whether they are of the same sex or [...]

The Financial Times’ Brussels blog has a very interesting story about the manouvering taking place on European Commission numbers from next year. As we found out, Nice will govern the makeup of the Commission from January next year - rather than Lisbon.
This means there has to be less Commissioners than there are member states, prompting [...]

The EU has started a new Lobbyist database to register all lobbiests in the EU.
“Lobbying is a necessary and growing business, and regulation is inescapable,” Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas said.
“I am happy that the profession agrees, and has signalled its readiness to protect its own reputation and help us preserve the legitimacy of our interaction,” [...]

The EU Observer reports
Poland is emerging as another potential problem for Lisbon Treaty ratification, with the office of the president - who has yet to sign off on the document - beginning to publicly argue that the EU pact is dead following the Irish No.
I think Sarkozy is going to be visiting Poland soon. [...]

[Edit: To say hello and welcome stumblers. Take a look around and tell us what you think.]
The prevailing mantra of Irish and European politicians, still reeling at the Lisbon ‘No’ vote in Ireland, is that we as a small nation cannot hold up the EU. Apparently, if 26 nations have said ‘Yes’ the breaks should [...]

Another excellent contribution to Open Democracy on the fallout from Lisbon yields a clear sighted analysis of just why so many people think the Lisbon campaign and fallout stinks;
But the Irish voters are not the only surrealists in the latest European psychodrama. A day before the vote, European political leaders had passionately argued that success [...]

Pardon the spelling if dickying is incorrect but I highlighted a post earlier today on Open Europe - as much for myself to return to later than anything else and yes those links in the sidebar do change!. They have a copy of the original Commission poll(PDF) that informed the awful reporting in the Independent [...]