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

Hands up here who is getting pissed off at farmers. Now I come from the countryside so I am not some city slicker that comes down in my SUV to take my morning constitutional. Farmers keep going on about how the hill walkers should not be allowed to walk across their lands without compensation as [...]

The EPA released a report looking at the impact of climate change on Ireland in the coming years, since its only 30 pages long, I recommend you read it. However below the fold I have copied the table in the report looking at likely outcomes from temperature changes in Ireland. By the way, that sea [...]

The interesting thing about the NDP is the hopefulness of it all. It is presented as the next phase of NDPs which is to build on the foundation of the 200-2006 model and expand infrastructure. It will now include social infrastructure also which is an essentail element. In the area of transport, we saw that [...]

From the Irish Examiner.
Fianna Fail’s Ned O’Keeffe has suggested a two tiered alcohol limit one for rural drivers and one from city drivers.
“We could have a two-tier system,” he said. “I could have 80 milligrams in an urban area and 100 milligrams which would be fairly normal in rural Ireland and that would [...]

One of the big stories of the last few days is that Eamon O’Cuiv has announced that the state will subsidies public transport for people to go home from Rural pubs. Now there is a lot of up roar about it. About how it is an election stunt, subsidising drinking yadda yadda. But it is [...]

I would like to thank Mr Gogarty for taking my questions.

A few months ago, the Green Party started its 50 Steps program where you would release fifty policies on education on the run up to the election. It was going well for a while with roughly one a week. However since step nine on July [...]

Originally posted at Wagging the Dog.
Agriculture’s share of GNP has been declining continuously for the last decade (ESRI). Is there still a case for a full Government Department for Agriculture?

Since the dictum that “all politics is local” surely applies in Ireland, it’s worth keeping note of seemingly arcane issues that could present tricky problems for the Government in the election.  One is surely the closure of the sugar factories in Carlow and Mallow.  While the government has the safety net of being able to [...]

Tomorrow in the Kilmeedy area of County Limerick, an excersise is to take place to see how well we are prepared for an outbreak of bird flu. (see front page of today’s Irish Times)
A total of 6,000 chickens, which the Department of Agriculture claim are past their productive lives, will be slaughtered when CO2 gas [...]

“The politician is trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded, because if they have a cutting edge they may later return to wound him.”

Edward R. Murrow

“The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a [...]

One of the interesting messages coming out of the PD conference is energy. In a survey that came out in last weeks Sunday Independent one of the big issues for Business people was energy. Also much of the discussion in the recent few weeks has been Nuclear power. Also in most of the recent polls [...]

Having researched a bit about energy here and here in the last few days I thought I would comment about Fine Gael’s new energy plans. Firstly many people think that this is mearly a plan by Fine Gael to entice the Green Party to join them in the next coalition and it may well be. [...]

Previously I wrote that Nuclear is not the answer to Ireland’s energy needs. So what are the options Oil, Gas, renewables, hamsters in wheels. Both Oil and Gas are running out while we need to tap the Corrib Gas field as it can supply 60% of our gas supply that is still a temporary measure [...]