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

Minister John Gormley recieved a letter from chairman of the Petitions Committee in the EU Parliament. The letter suggests that building on the M3 should be halted following the findings made at Lismullen earlier this year.
The site at Lismullen is a National Monument but as was reported earlier, the recommendation of the National Museum was to preserve [...]

The overturning of the Monaghan Development plan by John Gormley has gotten increasingly tetchy as first Sinn Fein press released (three times in one day) to air their displeasure at the “anti-democratic” nature of Gormley’s decision to overturn the plan. The decision taken by Gormley lacked a mandate since his party only received 3% of [...]

According to tomorrow’s Sunday Business Post, Environment Minister John Gormley will soon present a memo to Cabinet with a view to reforming the election process for Senators.
The article doesn’t give too much detail on his plans, but the crux of his proposal is the suggestion to make the majority of Senators directly elected by the [...]

Ciaran Cuffe is surprised to learn that ballots for the Seanad election, for the TD/Senator/Cllr pool anyway, are not all that random.
Councillor Tom Kivlehan pointed out to me a curious aspect of the Senate Election. Each ballot is marked with a unique number on the back. Before I told him my number, he was able [...]

The EU released a statement this afternoon outlining that it is to proceed with an investigation into the practice of subsidising Dublin Bus and CIE generally. Though the commission point out that they are only investigating they do outline three areas of concern to them where Ireland may be breaking EU law. These are;

Compensation provided [...]

Looks like we gotta get a new poll then, ideas in the comments. Gormley was elected on 64.5% of the vote to Patricia McKenna’s 35.5%. There was a turnout of around 60%. Some intimated that the level of McKenna’s support was some insight into disaffection within the Greens, yet no indication of what level of [...]

The Magill Summer School is a regular agenda setter during the slow news period of July/August. This season is unlikely to be any different and Frank Flannery’s speech as reported in the Irish Times bears out two important points about the election earlier this year. First out is that PJ Mara was, once again, correct. [...]

John Gormley has a trait of posting that he’s going to lose an election due to ’safe seat syndrome’. The Green Leadership election is no different it seems. Coming home to canvass after a meeting in Brussels, he discovers most members have voted already and have voted for his opponent Patricia McKenna. He predicts [...]

The Green’s have got out of the blocks fast and got one of their major idea’s in the process of being implemented. The idea of a directly elected Dublin Mayor and more power to local councils. And this has been hailed in many quarters as a good thing. But I think it [...]

They cannot be blamed for any of this but the move by Tom Parlon out of public life to head up the Construction Industry Federation could bring another headache for them in terms of the constant jibes they have been taking from the opposition benches. In their manifesto and at conference the Green Party committed [...]

John Gormley pledged today that he will review his department’s stance in relation to “archaeological practice and policy”. He also released the documents dealing with the site at Lismullen, which is on the route of the controversial M3 motorway. Such openness and transparency is to be welcomed; but the whole affair raises questions over how [...]

It is well and truly open season on the Green Party. In their first private members session Fine Gael moved a motion condemning hospital co-location. Their next motion dealt with the Ringsend incinerator. It would be nice to think the largest opposition party intends to drive new public sector and environmental agendas – but it [...]

One of the real problems of ‘reading’ Irish politics in the current period (since the 1990s) is the difficulty in assessing how much deliberate or contrived disagreements are used in order to shore up the credentials of one party or another in Government. We saw something of this in the first PD/FF administration where issues [...]

Its a yearly story, as consistent as rain in June. The Dail rises sometime in July for nearly 3 months summer holidays. In comparison to many of the parliaments in Europe we have some of the fewest sitting days of any country.
As noted by Senan Moloney in the Independent;

The Green position on Europe has long been one of opposition. Since they opted to enter government last month speculation has been building here and elsewhere as to what the sticky issue of Europe will do to the government dynamic. Would they continue to oppose Europe? Embark on a volte face? Or would they fudge [...]

Arrive home to the joyous news that the Green Party will have a contest not a coronation after all. So alongside Seanad results we will be keeping a keen eye on the internal dynamics of the Green party. John Gormley and Patricia McKenna will be contesting the leadership but it will be interesting for two [...]