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

So poll numbers are down. Fianna Fail at 25% in the Irish Times poll.
I am sure there is plenty of commentary about all this already among people. There is a generally held belief that the young are the most likely to be left wing in a society and most likely to be on the Internet. [...]

Is it really a big story? Really? Personal insults do not mark out a quality debater but nonetheless the big picture last night was that many thousands turned out in the hail, sleet and snow to protest at education cuts.
Those cuts have yielded horror stories around the country. Like the school in Cloneen, Tipp which [...]

Where is the radical reform in the civil service ? Sunday Times figures show that almost every civil servant in the country has received a pay increase. The Government seemed happy to let the civil servants write the budget and now we find that the oversight process for employees in the civil service, the Performance [...]

I’m talking out of turn here politically, but if anyone is interested in a practical solution to the over 70s medical card fiasco, there’s my tuppence worth.
I might be asking a rather obvious question here but if the GPs charge the state €640 (the figure itself isn’t really relevant at the moment) for giving people [...]

On the back of the solidarity being shown by Ministers in taking a 10% pay cut for next year, a source got me wondering whether those Ministers with additional income streams - like teachers’ pensions - might not be convinced to forgo these also. What with them spending enough time in the Dail to qualify [...]

Enda Kenny wanted to show leadership today, so at his party’s pre-budget announcement he let it be known he has asked the Dail to cut his pay by 5% for next year. Bold. Decisive. Leading.
Only that on Wednesday he was speaking on that very topic on Today FM’s The Last Word. Paul Gogarty suggested that [...]

PD local councillor Cait Keane has joined Fine Gael in Dublin South. There is by-election coming up and with Tom Kitt steppign down in 2012 Fine Gael might lick their chops at a potentail third seat.

Via redmum

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmqCUrQ4uRA

In a statment released this morning, the Government signalled that it will “safeguard the Irish Banking system”. The world fell apart yesterday and surely some of our most famous banks are hanging on by a thread. Their stock pummelled and - in private at least - their reputation is now in tatters, they need security [...]

ITs a good week for Red C to take the latest tracking poll for the Sunday Business Post. Markets are falling like stones (Friday has the potential to be another massive dead cat bounce) and the government don’t look to have stamped authority on many aspects of policy.

Stephen Collin’s story in the Irish Times today is one of those ones that feeds into a zeitgeist. Political leaders who have let the Social Partnership talks slip, are in charge of an economic slowdown and on 13 weeks of summer holidays receive their final pay increase today.
TDs WILL receive a pay rise of some [...]

It has been called “unhelpful” and “unwise” however I am not sure what the reasoning for that is. Dick Roche suggested that we may well have a second referendum on Lisbon as a means to keep us at the heart of Europe.
A SECOND referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would “ultimately” be required and ratifying key [...]

Today’s Humbert Summer schools has the opposition berating Cowen and attempting to frame the narrative for the upcoming election run-in. In her speech (wonderfully titled Brian Cowen and the Riddle of Cleopatra’s Nose)
Then, Brian Cowen enjoyed huge public and media approval and was received in his home county as a conquering hero. That has all [...]

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 [...]

After the Lisbon Treaty debackle Leo Varadker came out and critisesed Enda Kenny in what could be said as the early stages of a coup. So what does Enda do. Blame Leo Varadker for the recent poor form.
In an apparent reference to the claims by one Fine Gael councillor that young TDs such as Leo [...]

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
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