The book will be launched by Ms. Emily O’Reilly, Ombudsman and Information Commissioner.
LOCATION: City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin 2.
DATE: Tuesday 21st May 2013
TIME: 6pm followed by a reception
RSVP: jean.nelson@dcu.ie or phone: 01-700 8860
The Politics of Sovereign Debt – conference 12 June 2013
The Helix, Dublin City University, 12 June 2013
The debt crises in Ireland and Europe require a combination of political and economic analysis. This conference includes cutting-edge papers from leading international scholars. Continue reading
9/May/2013 – New Directions in Referendums; Politics and Campaigns
New Directions in Referendums 9 May 2013
May 9, 2013 – Jane Suiter and Theresa Reidy co-convenors of the PSAI Voters, Parties and Elections Group are holding two events on referendums examining all elements of campaigns from a global perspective with the world’s leading experts from Canada, California, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany as well as Ireland contributing. With a number of referendums in the pipeline in Ireland over the coming years this is a timely opportunity to get to grips with how these campaigns work and are run in a wide variety of democracies. The events are being held at the NUI, Merrion Square and European Parliament Office, Molesworth Street on 9 May. All welcome, but please email Clara Muller at 112137430@umail.ucc.ie to register.
Full programme details available here.
Are “Cultural” explanations for systemic failure sufficient?
Originally posted in the CLMR portal by Elaine Byrne (11 April, 2013)
The Salz Review into Barclays shares similar findings to the Honohan and the Regling and Watson Banking Inquiries. Salz attributed the extraordinary failings at Barclays to “corporate corruption” while the Irish approach has been to focus on “group think”.
“Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society,” warned Machiavelli. He was wrong as the Independent Review into Business Practices at Barclays, the latest in a series of reports into the corrosive nature of investment banking, makes abundantly clear.
The probe into the manipulation of benchmark interest rates at Libor ultimately resulted in a £290m million settlement by Barclays with US and British regulatory authorities in June 2012. In February 2013, Barclays surprised everyone when it revealed that it had set aside £1 billion to cover mis-selling as part of a damages bill for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) and the cost of compensating small businesses, bringing its overall estimated legal liabilities to £2.6 billion.
Whither Industrial Policy? The Future of Public Institutions and Economic Development
3-6 pm, Thursday April 25th 2013
Institute of Bankers, 1 North Wall Quay, Dublin 1
Sponsored by NUI Maynooth (NIRSA/ Sociology) and UCD Geary Institute Continue reading
Fianna Fail’s long march forward halted…for now? Late March/April polls
Adrian Kavanagh, 23rd March 2013 – updated 30th March, 13th April, 27th April
Recent opinion polls have all pointed towards significant gains in Fianna Fail support levels, albeit to varying degrees, leaving Fianna Fail at its highest support level in opinion polls since the IMF-EU bailout in November 2010 and with some of these positioning it as the most popular party in the state ahead of Fine Gael. The polls in late March and April did point towards a plateauing of the Fianna Fail surge, however, marking some good news for the government parties, though perhaps not Labour. The latest poll, the Red C-Sunday Business Post poll (28th April) puts national support levels for the main political parties and groupings, and relative to the previous Red C-Sunday Business Post poll (24th February 2013), as follows: Fine Gael 28% (NC), Fianna Fail 25% (up 1%), Sinn Fein 16% (up 2%), Labour 11% (down 2%), Green Party, Independents and Others 20% (down 1%). My constituency-level analysis of these poll figures estimates that party seat levels, should such national support trends be replicated in an actual general election, would be as follows: Fine Gael 57, Fianna Fail 43, Sinn Fein 22, Labour 13, Green Party, Independents and Others 22. Continue reading
Parliamentary privilege isn’t meant to be for this
Posted by Eoin O’Malley (12 March 2013)
The ‘sort-of’ revelation on Twitter that Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan may have used his Oireachtas privilege have penalty points wiped juxtaposes nicely with the eight month sentence imposed on the former UK cabinet minister, Chris Huhne, for perverting the course of justice in a case that started from misallocated penalty points. Huhne’s case is worthy of a soap opera, but Ming’s may be the comic relief in a tragedy. It shows a profound misunderstanding of the purpose of parliamentary privilege.
Ireland’s constitution gives members of the Oireachtas parliamentary privilege through Article 15.13: Continue reading
