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

Ian Kehoe in this morning’s Sunday Business Post on the An Bord Snip report (not online yet):
The Bord Snip report will be given to minister fo finance Brian Lenihan this week. He plans to bring it to Cabinet the following week. Lenihan’s preference is to publish the report despite growing tension between his department and [...]

The return of Morgan Kelly to the pages of the Irish Times is most definitely noteworthy, Kelly spent much of the period from 2006-2008 being pilloried as a wonk in an ivory tower who went wrong on the maths somewhere. In 2007 he wrote in a head to head with Austin Hughes (behind paywall, email [...]

An Bord Snip reports tomorrow, with cuts to social welfare and services likely to top its list of recommendations (if our Sunday’s are to be believed). In the meantime though, Brian Cowen has announced an Innovation taskforce whose aim will be something about getting Ireland toward the Smart Economy. The members will be people who [...]

From last night’s debate on a private members motion (FG) on Crumlin cutbacks.
During the debate in the Dail, Ms Harney said: “I find it strange that when we ask hospitals to make efficiency savings, some hospitals decide that the most sensitive area is the area that should be cut first.”
Those nasty hospitals….taking spin to a [...]

Apropos only 19 of 145 judges taking a pay cut, Niall Collins TD for Fianna Fail in Limerick wants a referendum:
“This group of elite untouchables should be subjected to the regular procedures administering the pay of higher civil servants. In the modern day being protected by the Constitution is simply not good enough given that [...]

Posted this on my own blog yesterday, so apologies for the cross posting. Should have put it here first!
Apart from the speculation on who will be Fianna Failure’s nominees for the two Seanad by-elections (caused by the death of Senator Tony Kett [FF] and election to the European Parliament of Senator Alan Kelly [LAB]), a [...]

So yeah, the facebook wall of John McGuirk, Libertas’ Irish press officer is below. I said Libertas was an organisational shambles last week, the downfall will reflect exactly why. Expect law suits to be splattered all over the place (edit: in fact, they already are being thrown about, a letter was sent by Simons’s solicitor to [...]

With a week to digest the election results, the Green Party might be credited with an emerging strategy to take into their negotiations for a renewed programme for government and, in theory at least, the second part of the process of government for however long it lasts. It was assessed here and elsewhere that the [...]

In the course of my work today I was looking back over Libertas’s campaign, how the organisation emerged, it’s modus operandi etc etc and it struck me – it could be argued that even putting the words ‘Libertas’ and ‘organisation’ beside one another, was a bit of a stretch. There doesn’t seem to have been [...]

“Tabloid politics” was how Mary O’Rourke described the Dail Debate on the Confidence Motion. And she was right.
There was no policy discussion of merit – apart from Brian Lenihan’s effort – about where we are going and what we need to do to get there. Insults were liberally traded on all sides. Enda Kenny dubbed [...]

Enda Kenny has dropped Frank Flannery as the Fine Gael director of elections following controversy caused by Flannery’s remarks during the recent election campaign, The Indo reports.
Update: The Irish Times say that it is not a “demotion” but that the director of elections position was not a continuous role.
For those not up to speed, Flannery [...]

Today at 12.00 from the Garden of Remembrance. Sign the petition and bring a white ribbon if you are attending.
Today’s order of business in the Dail is the worst political failure I have seen:
10.30 a.m.
* Leaders Questions
* Motion re Confidence in Government (to conclude at 5.30 p.m.)

Today the motion of no confidence tabled by Fine Gael seems certain to fall, meaning they will not be able to table another such motion for six months – early December. With the Government’s Dáil majority looking shaky, I’m going to assume Fianna Fáil will push to have the Donegal South-West bye-election to replace Pat [...]

Councilor Christy Burke has resigned from the Sinn Féin party. After more than thirty years of at times frayed relations with the party’s Dublin HQ he has stepped down taking his council seat with him.
Sinn Féin are calling on him not to make the seat independent, stating that he was elected on a Sinn Féin [...]

The Fianna Fáil second tier are dripping into the count centre as we speak. Sean Haughey was first – arriving about an hour ago. Pat Carey popped in a half-hour later. Mary Hanafin is the latest, she sauntered in quietly under the radar and hugged Maurice Ahern while most cameras wern’t switched on – mine [...]

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 [...]