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

Usually not a fan, but Diarmaid Ferriter’s in The Examiner today is well worth the read.

Some of the end-of-term report cards will make for sorry reading, with the exception perhaps of the Green party leader, John Gormley, who has made the transition from the opposition benches to cabinet with singular ease and who is basking in every minute of it…

Gilmore is also quite convincing when being stern. The same cannot be asserted about Enda Kenny and it is not unreasonable to wonder how long he can continue to be Fine Gael leader given his lack of authority, his disastrous attempts at being empathetic and his failure to convince during his Dáil and media set pieces.…

The baby Blueshirts elected last year have grabbed the limelight and Richard Bruton continually demonstrates that he, and not Kenny, should be party leader…

Brian Cowen’s political honeymoon was unusually short and a reminder that Bertie Ahern got out at just the right time. Cowen’s wounds are largely self-inflicted and he certainly cannot blame the media for being unduly hard on him. In fact, quite the opposite.

The Indo carries news that Arthur Spring, nephew of former party leader Dick Spring, has jumped into poll position for an MEP run following a decision to reinstate members voting rights at the forthcoming selection convention. The nomination would see Spring return to the campaign trail and doubtless set up a run for the Kerry North/West Limerick run in 2011/12, presently a tricky prospect with the local party.

It may be a catchy means of getting around the 9 and 15 month deadlines that seem to be naturally occuring to the EU leadership, but rerunning Lisbon next June in conjunction with European Parliament and Local elections has been ruled out by most parties. Not least because another ‘no’ vote could seep over into party suuport where it matters - bums on seats. The Mail this morning (surprise) reckons Sarkozy told the government Monday they would need to rerun a vote on something, what it is is up to them.

Michael Martin was his usual self, waffling and blustering (whenever he uses “in terms of” twice in one sentence or once in two successive sentences is the tell) his way through television and radio. In a piece for today’s Irish Times Jamie Smyth he repeats his coyness;

Continue reading ‘No Decision on Voting Again on Lisbon’ »

Not sure if it was the Veni Vedi Vici, as it was in the UK when Nicolas and Carla wowed and charmed all around them. Yet he came and he did no more damage. Indeed his press conference was typical Sarkozy fare, combative, unflinching with its own gallic twist - ‘if I come it is meddling, if I do not it is indifference’ (my own rough paraphrasing).

What is interesting is the timelines. It is something we are busy denying the existence of, but as P O Neill has pointed out elsewhere, Sarkozy and the EU are readily implementing a number of ‘time horizons’ which are being looked at to resolve Lisbon. Either by EU Parliament elections in June next year or the Autumnal renewal of the Commission - oh what fun that will be - we will need to know the rules of the game. Nice II or Lisbon? That is the question we are being looked at to answer.

Continue reading ‘Phew - The Brief Sarkozy Visit’ »

Kevin Myres has written another article which has caused a bit of stir. This time on Africa. Myres laments that aid to Africa has only allowed its population of miserables to multiply and propped up several vile regimes in the process. The Indo letters page was bombarded. Then in today’s Irish Times Bryan Mukandi from Zimbabwe expresses his shock and horror at what Myers had written.

The reaction on the Indo letters page to Myres’ piece tells us two things. First, people still care about Africa. And second, many share Mr. Myres frustration and despair.

Continue reading ‘Aid in Africa’ »

At least it is according to Minister Brian Lenihan last week.

The following is my translation of an article in today’s Le Monde about proposals to get another Irish referendum. It is quite interesting in the kind of manoevering it reveals and also there is an interesting little comment at the end about the way the commission is evolving into something less than desireable. The article was written by Arnaud Leparmentier

The reform of the European Commission is to be sacrificed on the altar of the Irish No to the Lisbon Treaty. It’s the likely direction for Europe, as Nicolas Sarkozy, incumbent president of the EU, meets the Irish prime minister, Brian Cowen in Dublin on Monday the 21^st July.

Continue reading ‘We keep our Commissioner and Revote’ »

I got this email from Georg Pichler of rigardi.org and I thought I would pass it on.

As you might have heard the governmenting parties, Social Democrats (SPOE) and Conservatives (OEVP) have decided to end their coalition. After 1 1/2 years of constant quarrel and hardly any progress, the Social Democrats have decided to switch their EU policy from “no vote necessary, the parliament’s elected to handle this” to “no altering of Lisbon or accepting any new contract without asking the Austrian people” with a letter to Austria’s biggest and mightiest newspaper (boulevard), the “Kronen Zeitung”, shortly after weakening their own chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, who has become highly unpopular among the voters aswell as in his own party and is carrying a stigma as opportunist after failing to realize some important promises from the 2006 election campaign.

Continue reading ‘Lisbon a Austrian perspective’ »

The news that the ESB is to seek a 20pc price hike will if granted, drive the average annual bill up to a staggering €1,100. It is up to the Commission for Energy Regulation to sanction all such rises. Before it does so, it had better think hard about the hardship they could bring and factor in the human as well as the financial cost. If granted — and it could be in early autumn — it would add about €45 to the average two-monthly bill and push the average bill for a year to more than €1,100. And this from a semi-state that made profits of €440 million last year. Continue reading ‘Government must block ESB hike’ »

A thread on boards.ie has been the source of some impressive citizen activism in the last week and it seems the campaign there is just getting started.

As some people already know, Dublin City Council recently signed a deal with advertising group JCDecaux which would see a number of advertising panels erected on the city’s streets in return for some rent-able bikes. The first of these adverts have been put up in recent days and have quickly proven to be a major traffic and pedestrian hazard as this video details:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/v/Ka2xiMQtqFA&hl=en&fs=1[/youtube]

This thread on boards.ie has some excellent points on the legal requirements of JCDecaux and has also been the root of a campaign to get them removed - indeed the first of the signs which had been put up on Dorset St. has already been taken down after councillors were bombarded with texts and emails pointing out its hazardous nature.

If you’re a pedestrian or driver in Dublin city this might be a campaign you’d like to get involved in - there’s plenty of information in the thread and video if that’s the case.

If you do decide to contact your local councillor to express your opinion on this matter, it might also be worth pointing out that the local elections are coming up and that you have a good memory.

BBC Radio 4’s Today in Parliament last night did a segment on Nicolas Sarkozy’s speech to the European Parliament in which he outlined the agenda of the French EU Council Presidency.  It begins 19 minutes into the program (Listen again/download).   Included in the post-speech interviews is Kathy Sinnott MEP, who says that she has offered to host a meeting between Sarko and No voters so that he can get their feedback on his visit later this month.  She hasn’t heard back yet.

Not that it’s any use in solving the problem, but has anyone done a cost comparison on the storage costs for the e-voting machines versus the cost of having a backup radar system for Dublin Airport?  In a cinematic note, the existence of a backup radar system was of course a key plot twist in Die Harder.  We’re way behind the times.

The Government’s announcement of €500m in cutbacks reminds me of that other €500m that was in the news lately – the overspend on the Ballymun Regeneration Project. What if that €500 million were somehow refound and used to tackle the Government’s current budgetary problems? Problem solved. You would be forgiven for thinking.  Continue reading ‘That Other Half Billion…’ »

After the Lisbon Treaty debackle Leo Varadker came out and critisesed Enda Kenny in what could be said as the early stages of a coup. So what does Enda do. Blame Leo Varadker for the recent poor form.

In an apparent reference to the claims by one Fine Gael councillor that young TDs such as Leo Varadkar and Brian Hayes were contributing to the party’s low ratings, Mr Kenny robustly defended Mr Varadkar — who attended yesterday’s press event — and his colleagues.

“Leo is one of a number of very strong, young, ambitious, courageous, young people in our ranks both at town, county, city and Seanad level, and it’s my intention to use all their talents and give full vent to their ability,” he said

Me and everyone else here would like to pass on their sympathies to the Brennan family on the death of Seamus Brennan.

The centrepiece of today’s announcement of public spending cuts by Brian Lenihan and Brian Cowen is a claim that the motivation is to cut only current spending while preserving capital spending.  This may make for pleasing-sounding spin and apparent commitment to the NDP but it ignores one simple thing: capital projects don’t exist in isolation.  They need people and operations and maintenance to function i.e. they need current spending.   If you cut only current spending, then you’re squeezing the ability to effectively operate whatever capital facilities you do manage to build.  

The deeper issue is that the apparent rule of thumb that they came up with: “cut current, preserve capital” is a poor substitute for having had in place a medium-term budget framework linked to the annual budget announcements which would have allowed for a more structured modification of spending when the bad news came.   This is just one institutional reform that could easily have been done in the good times, and now will have to be cobbled together on the back foot in the bad times.  Indeed, any breach of the Stability and Growth Pact (about which the Brians were extremely evasive today) will require some such framework.  We’re going to be pinned down on basic fiscal economics for quite a while.