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

Update: Official Press Release here. – In a decision sure to spark furious condemnation from “no” campaigners, the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has announced new regulations on airtime set to grant the political-parties the vast majority of airtime during the campaign. Broadcasters are not required to allocate exactly the same amount of time to both [...]

Early predictions from most of the mainstream media outlets have McDonald as the favourite. There is nothing is solid from the exit polls however – while they are perceived to be more trustworthy in Dublin than elsewhere – they are far from concrete. They say it’ll come down to who goes out first between the [...]

The early numbers are out from tomorrow’s breakdown of the European race. Keith had some of the early East constituency numbers online a while ago and the rest of the details is clearing up now. Yesterday had Fianna Fail on 20%, Labour on 23% and Fine Gael on 36% – interesting to see how the [...]

Former Dublin West Socialist Party TD and Candidate in Dublin for election to the European Parliament Joe Higgins is hosting a bit of first later today.  A live online event aimed at ‘new’ media and voters with an open invite to bloggers to attend. (Full Details here). The event will be broadcast live  on his [...]

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.

The first poll after the Lisbon result comes with little by way of surprise. The Sunday Business Post/Red C poll finds the Irish electorate looks unlikely to have engaged in a mass volte face with regard to the major parties after Lisbon. Fianna Fail 40% (unchanged) Fine Gael 25% (-3)

In a great day for Irish and European democracy, the Irish people, on a higher turnout than Nice II, rejected the illegitimate and anti-democratic Lisbon Treaty by 53.4% to 46.6%. In doing so, they have struck a blow for freedom and against remote, unaccountable and undemocratic rule by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. They have shown [...]

In a packed Dail chamber, Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach of Ireland after a vote to choose between him, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore. The vote was won by 88 to 76. He was nominated by Bertie Ahern himself however it only became quite raucous as Mary Harney seconded Cowen’s nomination and defended the government’s [...]

What they spent Report on disclosure of donations and election expenses at Dáil general election of 2007. Breakdown Fianna Fáil €3,650,240.55. Fine Gael €2,809,474.25 The Labour Party €1,477,321.48 Progressive Democrats €1,012,707.52 Non-Party €795,862.25 Sinn Féin €685,095.66 The Green Party €553,858.70 Socialist Party €56,125.49 The Workers Party €30,200.14 Christian Solidarity Party €11,427.06

The report of the 2007 Consituency Commission is out, some would say a little bit too late but how and ever. Kerry is to remain split, with Kerry South a 3 seater while Kerry North joins to West Limerick in also remaining a 3 seater. Dublin Euro is a 3 seater, Dun Laoghaire is a [...]

Vote began at 4:20  Sinn Fein oppose the time-limiting of the Taoiseach’s appointment. Tom Kitt announced a guillotine of the nominations to 16:30. Caoimhghin O Caoilain calls for an extended debate, “we have been returned from our constituencies and have a right to have our opinion heard”. He makes the request to the Whip and [...]

The drunk and the powerful came together, they came with their wives and their fans, they slapped backs and winked at each other for they knew what so many had denied for so long – that Fianna Fail was going to win the 2007 general election. They gathered in groups of two and three, these [...]

Released just after seven o clock this morning on Morning Ireland, the RTE Exit Poll with Landsdown Marketing. Main findings below (expect analyis later). Margin of error 2.5% (in 2002 it was effectively 1% between FF and FG) Fianna Fail on 41.6% almost = to 2002 Fine Gael up 4% to 26.3% Labour 9.9% down [...]

We are still running the floating voter poll on the sidebar so if you have not already voted please do. But already almost half have said that they are floating voters. So to all them here is my reason why to vote the PD’s. There are three parties I have ruled out supporting. Sinn Fein [...]

Irish Anarchist Organistion, the Workers Solidarity Movement, today launched a campaign to encourage public understanding of our democratic system in the run up to the general election. The campaign will focus on groups such as young people, the working class and ethnic minorities, who have a history of high rates of abstention. The campaign launched [...]