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

From RTE’s description of the X-ray crisis reforms at Tallaght Hospital –
The main reforms will see the introduction of a board of management of ten and a review of the size and structure of the 22-member hospital board by consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers. The board of management will include external members ‘representing patient interests, business and financial [...]

Trying to cut some numbers to take account of the myriad comings and goings experienced in the current Dáil. Anyone want to poke holes? Sure am missing something. First draft looks like this:

In today’s Irish Times 28 economists, academics and analysts have signed an op-ed attacking the Government’s failed economic strategies while providing an alternative way forward. In short, they argue that the Government’s deflationary policies are leading us to a low-growth, high-debt future with unacceptable levels of unemployment; in short, a joyless, jobless future.
Instead, we should [...]

The Dept of Finance has published new NAMA valuation regulations which supersede previous ones and in so doing, provide some insights into what specific changes the European Commission demanded under state aid rules.  A couple of things to note from what is a confusing document.

There are days when Ireland is a dispiriting place.  Consider the following three seemingly separate issues.  The HSE report into the life and death of TF.  Niamh Brennan’s still under wraps report on the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.  And the latest delay in the Moriarty Tribunal.  They have something in common: legal sensitivities are being [...]

Reports tonight on the pending reshuffle suggest that Green leader John Gormley might be set to step aside as Minister for the Environment to make way for Ciaran Cuffe as part of an ‘internal’ agreement among the greens made in 2007. According to the Irish Times and others, Green memebers were given to understand that [...]

The carefully phrased European Commission approval of NAMA under state aid guidelines is only the beginning of the process.  Bank of Ireland and AIB will still need clearance for the specific balance sheet clearance (NAMA sales plus capital injection) that are still to come.   In that regard, it’s important to look at the seemingly separate [...]

The Green Party continues to move from one pot-hole to the next. This evening Deirdre De Burca is backing up her concerns about the DDDA, which she says she raised with the minister, with personal e-mails released on her website tonight. The email to Minister Gormley in August 2009. The DDDA report is going to [...]

There will be days of digesting the implications of the Willie O’Dea resignation.  Here’s a few impressions of where we are; doubtless others have their own.

There’s the old line about the Bourbons when they got back in power after Napoleon that “they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing”.  Then there’s Fianna Fail.  The Willie O’Dea confidence motion debate today was mercifully short because it showed a government that, after years of scandals and concerns about conduct in public office, has [...]

Willie is racing through a statement a few minutes ahead of schedule with a sullen Dermot Ahern sitting beside him.  Enda Kenny says he will move a motion of no confidence in him.  And now on to Labour’s bill to reform parliamentary inquiries.  At least someone is working on improving accountability.
UPDATE: Much like Willie’s accelerated [...]

How long before she is “that woman” in the corridors of Leinster House?  An all-guns-blazing statement from Deirdre de Burca in response to the Sunday broadsheet spinning about her resignation.  It’s one little detail after another (going back to Dermot Ahern’s blasphemy bill) but including this nugget –
The Green Party had favoured Pat Cox for [...]

A couple of days ago, we had a discussion about whether a Fiscal Policy Council could work for Ireland.  There is one basic problem: as such a council would imply reduced power for Fianna Fail, they’d never go for it.  Anyway, move along to another power that FF governments will never surrender: appointments.  Today the [...]

Simon Johnson (ex-Chief Economist, IMF, now at MIT) and Peter Boone (LSE researcher, also investment fund affilitation) in the Wall Street Journal (possibly $ req’d) –
Even following Thursday’s EU summit, an orderly resolution of these problems seems unlikely. The Germans will push for draconian cuts to Greece’s government spending and public sector wages but they [...]

4 days is a long time in politics.  Remember when the George Lee resignation seemed to dominate?  Deirdre de Burca in today’s Irish Times –
In fact, matters have become more serious of late where Brian Cowen appears to have failed to honour two specific agreements that were made at the highest level (ie between the [...]

RTE headline: Gardaí vote to take industrial action.
Which sounds ominous. Except that when you read on, (1) only half of the eligible pool botherered to vote at all, (2) of those who did, the majority voted for work-to-rule type measures, and (3), “the [Garda Representative] Association will decide at its annual conference in April what [...]