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

Unlike the political parties we here are not scared to address the issue. I guess the reason that the parties do not want to have the debate is that the pro/anti abortion divide runs  through all political spectrum’s.  All Greens may agree on climate change but on abortion they differ. So it is understandable that [...]

They’ve announced it. The general election is set to be held on May 24th. I won’t be voting. This is not because of apathy. This is not because the difference between the two possible coalitions is minimal. This will be because of what one angry disenfranchised voted called Temporal Gerrymandering.

These leaders’ blogs aren’t blogs. Blogs allow readers to comment on content. Blogs are a two way street. You can come onto my blog and let me know I’m a twat. You might influence me, you might not. But I’ll let you say it. This is just top-down press release style pointlessness. You’re supposed to [...]

In what is possibly a first all the youth parties have agreed on an issue. That issue being the need for a weekend election. In a post on the Ogra Sinn Fein blog. A statement signed by the heads of the 6 main youth parties has called for an weekend election. If you agree with [...]

The problem of young people taking drugs is serious and needs good idea’s to solve. Alas the idea’s we get are well frankly crap. We had Enda Kenny’s Drug testing children now we have give them a pin. Now we in Ireland Pioneers for over 100 years and been to pretty much every school in [...]

Report from the Irish Independent IRELAND is one of the wealthiest nations in the world but 15pc of our children are experiencing “food poverty” due to parents being too busy to provide proper meals.A new report has found that children from middle-class families are suffering food poverty, while 16pc of all Irish children under the [...]

Well auction politics or poker politics, it is all academic. He saw the opposition, by equalling commitments on the standard rate (down to 18% – originally Labour), the pension (€300 over the five years of government – originally PDs), lower the higher rate of tax (down to 40% – not as much as the PDs). [...]

We are not forgetting the other petition we have going here. About the drug testing of Dail members. It got a mention in this bi-montly version of Druglink the magazine of DrugScope the UK’s leading independent centre of expertise on drugs. It’s not on-line though I am afraid.

The Labour Party today levelled the assertion at McDowell in the Dail that, following on from last years CC case and the rapid passing of legislation to close the gap on statutory rape left by the Supreme Court Decision, his legislation repealed vital protections for children.

You know the way they say the Irish are late for everything, even their own funerals? Well so it seems is any major campaign aimed at mobilising the youth vote in Ireland. Maman Poulet would usually have no problem in supporting anything that mobilises young people to stick their number 1 (and other votes) on [...]

While not as damning as the actual failure to follow up the tip from Austrian police about two Irish participants in an alleged Internet child abuse ring, it’s telling that the first response of the Garda to the news that they had been tipped off was not to check their records, but to deny that [...]

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 [...]

Update: Kenny in the Irish Times “The system had worked in Britain and the US, he said”.  Really where is the proof? One of the stories in the papers around this time last year was that cocaine was found in the toilets in Leinster House. Yet as of yet Enda Kenny has not called for [...]

At least the wording according to a briefing paper seen by the Irish Times (subs. req’d) — below the fold.  The legal analysis by Carl O’Brien (subs.) is worth a look too.

According to a report on Newstalk, Bertie Ahern is still looking to press ahead with a Children’s Rights referendum prior to the next election. Beyond the purely electoral, there isn’t any really good reason why this referendum should be held separate from the general election, but that really isn’t here or there. What is though, [...]

It was difficult to expect much news over the traditional Christmas Break and Bertie is probably hoping for an extra week’s grace with his trip to the Gulf, but an election year both sides of the border is starting to concentrate minds, so below the fold a roundup of recent developments —