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

Judge Mahon.  What sounds like an incredible day at the Tribunal is unfolding.  Bertie’s strategy of alternating between seeming cooperation with the Tribunal while letting Conor Maguire level the accusations has finally drawn the Judge out of his cautious mode.  With the phrase “political donation for personal use” destined to enter the political lexicon (and [...]

Bertie Ahern has so far avoided “pleading the 5th” at Mahon today.   But he hasn’t needed to, being able to draw on a host of undocumented intra-family transfers and yet more dead people in order to be vague about where the money was coming from.  Today’s it’s the £10,000 in the Irish Permanent, consisting of [...]

Needless to say, I now understand. The chart makes it so much easier than listening to him.

Via That’s Ireland, Green Ink, Maman Poulet

Ahern to challenge aspects of Mahon
Connell withdraws bid to stop files examined

Surprising and yet not surprising, although there was a hint in the government’s refusal to take FG’s Mahon motion a couple of weeks ago.  Apparently at issue: his seemingly troublesome statement to the Dail that his tax affairs were in order, advice he received from a financial expert, and documentation for Mahon questions to him [...]

Poor Bertie.  He finally gets a trip to Manchester under the cover of official business — a meeting with Gordon Brown and the 50th anniversary of the Munich disaster at Old Trafford.  No questions about who’s driving the bus, or stopping by the Four Seasons to pick up envelopes, or who else is with him.  [...]

The Resign, Mr Ahern Facebook group, started back at the start of December, has just passed 1,500 members. It is certainly a milestone, and certainly the biggest Irish-oriented political group I have come across.
Following requests from members for some form of physical protest against Mr Ahern, I have put a date of Saturday April 12 [...]

During the course of his employment [...], his financial remuneration was not sufficient to meet his immediate financial requirements, and he experienced financial difficulties. He said he received assistance from his friends [...], in the form of loans. There was no formal structure to these loans. There was no interest charge, nor was there any [...]

This afternoon Fine Gael followed up last night’s debate and passport revelation that Bertie Ahern has helped Norman Turner apply for a passport while he was lobbying for the construction of a casino in Phoenix Park with allegations that Ahern was never really opposed to the Casino in the first place. On Vincent Browne last [...]

The Mahon Tribunal has already conclusively established that there were mysterious dollar donations sloshing around the upper reaches of the Fianna Fail party in 1994 and in close proximity to then Minister of Finance Bertie Ahern at the same time that the American firm Ogden was backing a proposal by businessman Norman Turner to build [...]

By 14.29 yesterday afternoon the benches of the Dáil and Seanad were almost entirely empty. Two minutes later during the opening prayer there was a scattering of TDs in the Dáil chamber. And what’s this? No Taoiseach for priority questions… merely a typically bedraggled Brian Cowen giving an answer of breathtaking tedium on the state [...]

Following today’s already embarrasing u-turn on his affairs with Revenue, looking like he was trying to bore a hole in his shoes with his eyes. Phil Hogan has released the results of a PQ which reveal that Bertie Ahern helped Norman Turner (of Tom Morrissey fame) to apply for a passport in 1994. Over this [...]

Willy O Dea accuses Enda Kenny of knowing at election time of a big story that was about to break in a national newspaper. When he met the editor of the newspaper (which Willy O Dea writes for) he suggested the story was going to be huge, leading the editor to think he knew and [...]

Begins at 7:00 over on Oireachtas live. Full motions are available here (PDF) Edit: Willy O Dea suggests that Fine Gael and Enda Kenny are familiar with or responsible for the tribunal leaks.
Motion: “That Dáil Éireann reaffirms its confidence in the Mahon Tribunal, and its belief that the Tribunal is acting independently, without bias and [...]

 
Its all a media hype-buzz-mess-thing, you see. When Bertie was popular in the polls it was on page 15 but now that he isn’t it is page 1 material. Well that seems to be editorial 101 right there. Elected leader=popular is not really news, elected leader=not that popular/trusted is actually quite newsworthy considering the last [...]

Today’s Sunday Business Post poll certainly contains some eyebrow-raising figures - particularly where it shows a majority in disbelief of Bertie Ahern’s tribunal performance to date. But to the probably relief of Ahern, and the Fianna Fáil party as a whole, this majority is not maintained when the topic moves to those who call for [...]