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

Simon McGarr’s post raised the issue of state agency rationalisation. It is an issue we may well not care much for at the moment, as we’re ‘too busy’ with the recession. Yet we should be concerned that some the agencies being tied together and taken back into departments are those ones with a nasty habit [...]

It has been called “unhelpful” and “unwise” however I am not sure what the reasoning for that is. Dick Roche suggested that we may well have a second referendum on Lisbon as a means to keep us at the heart of Europe.
A SECOND referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would “ultimately” be required and ratifying key [...]

Today’s Humbert Summer schools has the opposition berating Cowen and attempting to frame the narrative for the upcoming election run-in. In her speech (wonderfully titled Brian Cowen and the Riddle of Cleopatra’s Nose)
Then, Brian Cowen enjoyed huge public and media approval and was received in his home county as a conquering hero. That has all [...]

As Bertie Ahern does his screen-test for a future job on The Sunday Game or Late Late, he was quick to defend his handling of the economic downturn. Unemployment now at 5.1% and construction workers falling like flies - and little re-training to give them a hand up.
The Dublin Central TD, who quit office in [...]

Even before the Irish people’s democratic decision to reject the fatally-flawed Lisbon Treaty, (which would have deepened the democratic-deficit in Europe still further), the source of Libertas funding was a bane of “yes” campaigners. To the elite, the possibility of the ‘mainstream’ parties being so decisively outspent by this upstart pro-business [...]

The WTO talks are a little like the Tribunals. For the most part, progress is confined to a tiny box on page 8 of the Irish Times or Indo unless the leading lights drag it up the agenda. While both are meaningful in themselves and have great symbolic (on the perception of cleansing politics or [...]

It has been noted in a few places over the weekend that the grand alliance on Europe, the three main parties plus the Greens and PDs, was beginning to take some strain. Yesterday’s poll released by Open Europe seems to provide further evidence of that strain. Labour appear to be distancing themselves from any “Tallaght [...]

It may be a catchy means of getting around the 9 and 15 month deadlines that seem to be naturally occuring to the EU leadership, but rerunning Lisbon next June in conjunction with European Parliament and Local elections has been ruled out by most parties. Not least because another ‘no’ vote could seep over into [...]

It won’t be a surprise to Suzy but in echoes of Dermot Ahern’s own stated position in 1993, reports in today’s papers have a number of unnamed Senators and backbench FF TDs suggesting that this whole civil partnership thing is a bridge too far. Despite being greeted as one not far enough by all bar [...]

Missed this earlier today but didn’t spot it picked up here. Jamie Smyth got his hands on the confidential part of the Eurobarometer survey into the Lisbon result. The findings are interesting - also interesting they weren’t released. I would have guessed at who leaked were it not coming from Brussels correspondent.
LISBON: party supporters’ votes
[...]

Cowen was giving a speech last night where he conceded that corrective action on the economy is likely to be “painful”. Not a great time for the ESRI to recommend a rise in Social Welfare to E230 per week across the boards, yet interesting to see them call it a priority in a time when [...]

The Dept of Justice today released the heads of its proposed Civil Partnership Bill (PDF) (not as late as many assumed to be frank). Money quote:
Head 123: Cohabitant and qualified cohabitant
Provide that:
“(1) For the purposes of this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, ‘cohabitants’ means two adults (whether they are of the same sex or [...]

If it weren’t for the fact that we are in the middle of an international crisis of global proportions in the uncharted waters of unpredictability (ed - that is enough hyperbole), the government would be getting covered in other forms of excrement. Not least due to the admission that:
 ”high proportion of existing schools are in [...]

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)

I posted after Friday’s results were finalised that Enda Kenny could well find himself in the most precarious position of the three major party leaders. Kenny has increasingly bolshie elements within the party, a few more years in opposition and the pressure of maintaining progress next year to deal with and no foreign negotiations to [...]

Intersting analysis over at Open Democracy about the reasons Lisbon was rejected and an attempt to conceptualise the ‘democratic deficit’ that was apparently at the heart of the rejection. It is interesting from perusing the papers today that this analysis is taking a lot of hold, that it was the local context that informed voters [...]