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

Procter and Gamble have announced a cost-cutting plan which will be detailed to staff at the Nenagh plant tomorrow. There are 600 currently employed in the plant though there is no mention of how many jobs are to be lost. All part-time staff were sacked in December 2005 and in Feb 2006 a further 75 [...]

Whatever happened to good old Robin Hood and taking from the rich to give to the poor? (First posted on Skinflicks.)

Here is the real question, has any party in Irish history ever delivered real tax cuts after they have been elected?
While I voted in the last local elections in Cork a few years, my poor election memory has raised the the yellow card with regards to political promises. They never seem to happen.

With the auctioneer hoarse already, let’s take a quick look at one of the promises unveiled over the weekend: abolition of stamp duty on house purchases for first time buyers and graduated rates when it is payable.

Not auction politics. Poker politics. See Pat Rabbitte’s 18%, and raise it 38%.

With all eyes resting on random drug testing of school kids, the rest of Kenny’s Young Fine Gael speech seems to have gotten overlooked.
The policy Fine Gael probably hoped everyone would focus on - i.e. the one they put at the top of their press release summary - was that of lowering the blood alcohol [...]

Starting on RTE 1 now (10:20). Updates following.
Its over now, watch it when it goes live here.
Health:

Interesting response to Caoimhghin O Caolain on health. Two out of fifty in the audience would like to see SF in government but in a head to head on health with Mary Harney the majority of the group were [...]

Fair Deal on Long-Term Care, Green Ink.

In the run up to the election we are going to get loads of manifestos promising the sun moon and the stars. But do they actually deliver. In the first of I hope many I will try going through Fianna Fail and PD’s manifestos to see what they have promised and delivered and the other [...]

There seems to be a little falsehood going about the country this week. All the parties and papers seem to be at it.

Cowen’s mortgage tax concession wiped out by interest rate rise—Bruton
Mortgage rate jump tightens screw further on home buyers
ECB rate hike exposes cynical budget ploy—Boyle
Interest rate and VHI hikes hit Budget bonus (Irish Independent)
[...]

So the budget is done. The government saying it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, the opposition are saying it’s the worst thing since Hector, and smokers are complaining that along with smelling, they have to pay more. My heart bleeds. Now, I could try and analysis the entire thing but I think there are [...]

I read this today in The Paper Cowen urged to transfer €100m credit card duty to charities:
Thirteen TDs and senators tabled a motion at the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, last night, seeking to earmark the €100 million raised annually for Irish charities. The proposal is the brainchild of former KPMG accountant David Burke and is [...]

Brian Boru made a very good point by referring to the caveat in the FF/PD manifesto.
If economic circumstances allow.
The estimates for the tax take for 2006 were grossly underestimated. Whether this was Fianna Fail fudge (probably) or incompetence (probable, but unlikely as all civil servants were awarded the 100% maximum top-up bonus proposed under the [...]

There’s been plenty of media coverage over recent months of the feud between McDowell (in the PD corner) and Rabbitte (in the Labour corner), as each side trades blows on various issues. The reason for this is quite simple: it’s not because the two parties are so very different ideologically—they’re not as different as they’d [...]

Here is an idea. Reintroduce the bank levy of 5% but allow the banks to write off against this a portion of investment in small-to-medium size business start-ups, especially high-tech ones. There seems to a distinct lack of investment capital in this country where many budding entrepreneurs cannot get money from the banks due to [...]

I finally get a spare twenty minutes to do a post and it’s way too late to comment on the government’s recent flip in the polls. Well tough, I’m going to do it anyway. It’s hardly a new idea but I am willing to wager that at least some of the recent good numbers for [...]