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

From Green Party. Release Betancourt says Davidson, as anti-corruption activist enters seventh year in captivity
Nice to see one party strong against corruption.

There is a constant ratcheting up of pressure on this issue for Hanafin. This afternoon John Gormley and some Green paty representatives met parents of autistic children and promised to raise the issue of provision for ABA with Minister Hanafin (link once I get one-heard on radio). Niall’s ABA post is still very active over [...]

Last week I received an invitation from John Gormley’s office to attend a consultation that the Green Party was holding to discuss forthcoming developments in the legislation for Civil Partnerships for same sex couples.
Readers of MP will know I have been vocal on the issue of the Green Party policy in government regarding same sex [...]

While the Indymedia commenters go on about the Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition openly colluding with these US torturers and murderers, in their protest that involved putting Liam Mellows in a orange boiler suit, Niall O’Brolchain is in one of the pictures next to Michael D. What struck me about this is Labour are having problems [...]

The trend since the election has been the return of the 2+ party system and this poll does little to dispel that impression. Following closely on the Irish Times poll midweek, there is good news for both of the big parties in today’s Sunday Business Post poll. Fianna Fail are up four to 36% while [...]

They’re being voted on at the moment. As expected, the motion to make it party policy to support the treaty fell short of the required 2/3 majority. But the motion to make it party policy to oppose the treaty will also fail. So the only one that really matters is the third [...]

Update: Below is a press release from Solus, the light bulb crowd about their meeting with Minister Gormley yesterday. They are not complimentary;
It was revealed today during a meeting with the Minister that his department had not put any proposals together on what lamps would be included in the ban and how he proposes to implement [...]

Eamon Ryan was on RTE this morning and said that it is time for a full debate on the merits of nuclear power in Ireland. In light of the decision which seems to be coming today in the UK to begin upgrading their nuclear power generators. A debate which has been called for a while [...]

On the day when it also emerged that the proposed ban on incandescent light bulbs might contravene EU regulations, the government has used a classic late Friday news dump to ensure the row over water charges for schools will continue to rumble. The issue is the clarification issued for Bertie Ahern’s pre-Christmas declaration that [...]

What they spent Report on disclosure of donations and election expenses at Dáil general election of 2007.
Breakdown
Fianna Fáil €3,650,240.55.

Fine Gael €2,809,474.25
The Labour Party €1,477,321.48
Progressive Democrats €1,012,707.52
Non-Party €795,862.25
Sinn Féin €685,095.66
The Green Party €553,858.70
Socialist Party €56,125.49
The Workers Party €30,200.14
Christian Solidarity Party €11,427.06

After Mr Dempsey last year this is the second minister to have a blog. John Gormley’s Bali Blog.

It took me a while to realise there was something very odd about the latest RedC poll in the Sunday Business Post. Sure, Fianna Fáil has dipped precipitously. Well, after the month they’ve had one would think they’d better be down, at least a bit. Provisional Licences, pay increases, the latest noises from the Tribunal [...]

Bord Pleanala has laid a bed of nails for Minister Gormley. They have granted permission for the Poolbeg incinerator to go ahead with a capacity of 600,000. The inspector report recommended that the incinerator should only have a capacity of 500,00 tonnes at the most but DCC want the 600,000 to make up the shortfall [...]

John Gormley, leader of the Green party and recently appointed minister to the environment. He hasn’t really had much to say since the election, until now. Clearly Mr. Gormley has done a lot of research into engine emissions and knows a lot about how engines work. I say this because he has plans for an [...]

Bertie Ahern was talking to European Journalists today and outlined that the EU Treaty referendum will probably be held in early 2008. Sinn Fein have said they will lead a “robust” no campaign against the treaty, making them the only Irish party to commit to doing so and likely the only one with the Green [...]

Rough details here, more as it comes out. Its mostly as you were, FF unchanged, Greens at 7%, FG unchanged while Labour loses 1%.
I suppose that it will come as a bit of a surprise to both sides as both Labour and Fine Gael could not have been happier with 1)their start to the Dail [...]