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

In a week when the use of forged documentation in the asylum-system was highlighted with the rejection by the Supreme Court of the appeal of Nigerian asylum-seeker Pamela Izevbekhai against her deportation, FG and Labour are proposing the allow asylum-seekers to work. Despite 13% unemployment and mass-emigration – Alan Shatter and Pat Rabbitte are now [...]

Another day, another confidence motion. Well it may have been if #fgheave was not going on in the background.
If you care to watch the main speeches you can watch Enda Kenny here (with James Reilly his new best friend/wannabe deputy leader sitting beside him) , Brian Cowen and him saying sorry for the government’s part, [...]

Here’s the text of Brian Cowen’s speech entitled “A Decade of Commemorations — Commemorating Our Shared History” to the Institute for British Irish Studies at UCD today.  There are various points to make.  One is that these speeches — and this is not Cowen’s fault — have adopted a psychobabble language since they are written [...]

One of the mysteries of the Irish economic crisis, which historians may eventually puzzle over, is the long-drawn out nature of it.  On March 30, 2010, we get decisions regarding the financial sector that other countries made 12-18 months ago.  And for all the disruption caused by the selective go-slows in the public sector, the [...]

It is hardly surprising that following a reshuffle in which the conservative streak won out, the back benches in Fianna Fail are slightly angsty. They are in a perpetual knot over keeping their seats and advancing toward the ministerial merc. Interestingly with the reshuffle Cowen has brought both his Kitchen cabinet and the Green party [...]

There will be days of digesting the implications of the Willie O’Dea resignation.  Here’s a few impressions of where we are; doubtless others have their own.

There’s the old line about the Bourbons when they got back in power after Napoleon that “they had learned nothing and forgotten nothing”.  Then there’s Fianna Fail.  The Willie O’Dea confidence motion debate today was mercifully short because it showed a government that, after years of scandals and concerns about conduct in public office, has [...]

How long before she is “that woman” in the corridors of Leinster House?  An all-guns-blazing statement from Deirdre de Burca in response to the Sunday broadsheet spinning about her resignation.  It’s one little detail after another (going back to Dermot Ahern’s blasphemy bill) but including this nugget –
The Green Party had favoured Pat Cox for [...]

A couple of days ago, we had a discussion about whether a Fiscal Policy Council could work for Ireland.  There is one basic problem: as such a council would imply reduced power for Fianna Fail, they’d never go for it.  Anyway, move along to another power that FF governments will never surrender: appointments.  Today the [...]

Before we allow too much distance behind us, I wanted to pen a few thoughts on the year gone by, and the political highs and lows, as seen from my (quite openly subjective) perspective. As a practising Fianna Fáiler my comments will reflect mainly on government / party fortunes during the year but I will try [...]

Budget 2010 has drawn outrage from most sides but perhaps a word should be devoted to the 20-24 year olds. For younger people it looks like you take any job your offered or face a cut in your jobseekers allowance. This is despite many going to college – as instructed and incetivised to do – [...]

[Cross-posted on TheStory - please appreciate I wrote this at 1.30am after a day spent reading official documents. Mistakes are a possibility, I'm open to discussion in comments section]
It’s about a year since An Taoiseach announced plans to develop ‘The Smart Economy’ (the successor to ‘The Knowledge Economy’, remember that?). In those twelve months we’ve [...]

The way Cowen, Gormley, Lenihan and Harney have set to restructure civil service pensions in today’s Budget is strange. They’ve danced around the details using a fudgey term – “career average”, I’m trying to figure out exactly what they mean…
It appears the Government will restructure the way civil servant pensions are paid from its current [...]

The figures are out the deficit is €22bn going into December 9th budget. The figures suggests a levelling out of the deficit at the €22bn mark in advance of the budget but tax figures are a major hammering.

From RTE
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said: ‘This overwhelming negativity needs to stop because it’s not in our national interest to see that continue.
‘It is portraying our country as incapable of coping when in fact all of the success we had in the past was not illusory.
‘It is the community spirit that I have seen throughout the [...]

Maire Geoghegan Quinn’s statement on her nomination to be Ireland’s next commissioner is below the fold.