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

SIPTU’s Manus O’Riordan (head of research) has put on his wellies and waded through the recent CSO releases on wages and employment to argue that the media fixation with large double-digit wage differences between public and private sector workers is not warranted.  He has several points.

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 [...]

President McAleese has signed the Criminal Justice Bill and Defamation Bill into law. Last night the Council of State discussed the bills in what many interpreted to be a symbolic, or tokenistic, meeting. This morning they were signed into law. Step in which direction? I know one or two regular participants on this website thought [...]

It took some time to read and digest the full 300+ page Leas Cross investigation report. In the deluge of An Bord Snip coverage it made sense to leave a post until this morning. In the cold light of morning the report is worse than the initial impression my dulled senses took. There are a [...]

We’re going to try something new on Irish Election for the release of the An Bord Snip report. It’s expected at some point in the next few days, probably early Thursday (tomorrow) or early Friday. Irish Election has a community of commenters that most media outlets don’t – that’s what makes this site worth reading, [...]

That graph made me wince… The Quarterly National Household Survey (figures on unemployment) figures for the first quarter of 2009 were released today. You can read the document in PDF format here.

If you’ve just sat down after a slap-up dinner and thought “hmm, I wonder what the International Monetary Fund have said about Ireland in their latest Staff Report” and considered jumping across to IMF.org, don’t bother. I’ll sum it up here for you. Note: This was a staff report – the IMF has a staff [...]

Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence this morning had a superb roundup of the Ryan commission report and the fallout from it, with a comprehensive panel discussion (segment begins 33 minutes in).  The panel discussion made news with an apparent nod from the hierarchy that the 2002 indemnity deal will have to be reopened.  A nod that [...]

A short post about a dreadful juxtaposition: why did Louise O’Keeffe have to endure huge suspense about whether she was liable for the State’s legal costs in her failed child abuse liability case when on the same day that she finally gets off the hook (the Supreme Court showing sense), we learn that the Ombudsman [...]

  EU comparisons are fascinating and can tell us quiet a lot about ourselves. Be it that we do not have the most generous unemployment benefit in the EU. Or be it that we do not have a high crime rate in Ireland.  Or be it that we have the third highest owner occupier rate in the EU. 

Most of the reaction to the latest EU Commission forecast for the Eurozone and Ireland focuses on the unemployment prediction (16%) and the fact that their growth forecast is somewhat worse than the government’s.  But in a sense, we knew those numbers already.  The ESRI from last week was pretty dire, and for 2009 forecasters [...]

  The Irish Examiner has a piece in the paper today. Department staff clocked up 20,000 sick days in 3 years Oh my that is shocking 20,000. With 5,000 staff.  That means that people are taking 1.3 Days on Average uncertified sick leave a year. Emm. Not so shocking now is it? Indeed I guess across all walks [...]

Alarmingly for those of us who value Western freedoms including freedom of speech, the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, has revealed his intention to make “blasphemous libel” a crime, punishable by a fine of €100,000. From the Irish Times:

First time I’ve seen the Irish Trade Union movement do something good on the PR side.  They’re usually left in the wake of the better resourced employers:

The Government has refused a pensioner a fuel allowance because he’s 4c over the limit.  Does everything they touch right now turn to a PR disaster? Joe Costello: The Minister for Social and Family Affairs has taken over the role of Scrooge this Christmas. Henry Porter, a resident in the North Inner City and ninety [...]

Niall Crowley’s resignation as the CEO of the Equality over budget cutbacks which would see the authority lose 40% of its budget and enforce a move to Roscrea that would decimate its legal staff raises more questions for Angela Kerins and the others on the Equality Authority board. Suzy has posted on Maman Poulet Angela [...]