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

The subject of David McWilliams column today is how the GAA transfer index shows a growing trend of emigration from Ireland.
According to the GCTI, emigration is on the increase from all over Ireland and it is recurring in precisely the age group that we need most — our young, fit people. What makes the change [...]

Newstalk’s Marc Coleman has a nice perch on the Financial Times comment page today to outline his fairly optimistic long-term view of the Irish economy despite the current property downturn.  His essential argument, to be outlined in more detail in his book, is that Ireland has two key assets for its long-term growth prospects: people [...]

Just checking out the Fianna Fail Website on the free Wi-fi in Shannon Airport. (Big company of US troops just checking in. A guy just bought a bottle of Middleton Whiskey and then told the CO has said none of them can  buy Alcohol. Poor guy maybe I could relieve him of the 120 Euro [...]

Over on politics.ie an article from the polish radio service is highlighted which says.
The Polish community in Ireland appeal to the authorities of that country to make Polish the third official language, after English and Irish. It’s natural, they say. We are now the second largest nation of Ireland, so we should enjoy our right [...]

At a conference in the USA last night and again on The Last Word today, Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan suggested that the government was discussing giving immigrants political rights as a means to better integrate them into Irish life. This chestnut has been doing the rounds in the literature for a long time now [...]

It seems Kevin Myres does not surf the net.
And still, no debate on immigration, none whatever; and never mind the pusillanimous, left-liberal media classes, what about the rest of you? Why the silence? Why the abject, pathetic, skulking public wordlessness on an issue that — to judge from the way so many people come up [...]

In todays independent this was a headline. Irish HIV rates on the up, says new report
AN average of 31 Irish-born heterosexual people a year are now being diagnosed with HIV, according to a new report. The report from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said of the 169 heterosexual people from different countries diagnosed in [...]

Recently I posted in response to Eamon Gilmore proclaim that Labour could get 30 seats an animation from Father Ted basically saying he was in cloud cuckoo land. But if he wants to win 30 seats he need only build on the foundation the Pat Rabbitte laid in Janurary  2006 when he said
“There are 40 [...]

I am in Paris at the moment and thus a bit behind the news cycle here, so I am not sure if anyone has made this point yet, but anyway. I always find it interesting the groups that align in these cases. You can get two groups that never unite unite on an issue such [...]

Just listening to the Tom Mcgurk and someone made a point about the deportation of the Roma Gypsies.  If McDowell had been the person who had made the decision which most politicians would have made. People would be crucifying McDowell in the media. Yet Brian Lenihan does it and the media agrees with it.

Update: 57 are being deported 35 remaining.

So the tensions are been roused again due the encampment of Roma Gypsies on a roundabout on the M50. With people being critical of the government on all fronts. For not acting fast enough or not giving them homes. First things first. They are on a roundabout. Get [...]

(All figures available from the Central Statistics Office website, here.

This is about as definitive as you can get.
The census figures show an Ireland that is undergoing huge change, but not quite in the way we have been told. First of all, the actual number of non-nationals employed in construction challenges the “common sense” view that [...]

I’m not sure how idiosyncratic the issues raised in this post are, so if the title catches your attention, read on.

Seanachie, of the superlative Pleasures of Underachievement highlights something that perhaps should be getting as much prominence as the Weekend vote issue but has, so far, managed to go completely under the electoral radar.

Michael McDowell has launched his New Immigration Bill. The big part from Ireland.com
Foreign nationals legally resident in the State will have to carry a credit card-sized permit containing biometric information under legislation published today by the Government.
So what do people think? Is it right and is the fact that they will be biometric good or [...]

The Irish fear crime with as much passion as they love property: no strange wonder, as both are based on speculation.
When it comes to irrational behaviour why hold back? Once you’ve committed yourself, make the tackle and hang the cost. And across the main political parties, regardless of the font size and headed [...]