It took an unprecedented 140 Day for the Irish government to be formed. Does this suggest we need some mechanism to speed up the process?* While it is always theoretically possible to form a majority coalition, the level of fragmentation in the Irish party system in 2020 was at a record high. The effective number…
Guest post by Dr Anthony Costello, lecturer in EU Politics and Comparative Government at the Department of Government, University College Cork. Following the recent General Election in the United Kingdom, the prospect of a soft Brexit now appears to be more achievable than previously anticipated; albeit under the most unlikely and controversial circumstances.
Talks on forming a new coalition government in the Netherlands collapsed again on Monday evening, when chief negotiator Herman Tjeenk Willink said the four parties involved had decided not to pursue the alliance. This comes almost three months after the election. It’s hardly a record yet, but it should not surprise us if government formation…
One of the side deals done in the attempts to form a government was the idea to send the issue of the 8th amendment to the Constitution to a citizens’ assembly. Convening a convention is a good and practical idea, because it takes issues that politicians can’t agree on off the table. Any suitable issues…
Guest post by Brian Hayes MEP The people have voted, the counts have finished and the 32nd Dáil has sat, yet we have no government. People are beginning to get frustrated with the ‘slow’ pace of government formation. Parties are setting out their positions, negotiations are being held and support sought to elect a Taoiseach…
It’s almost four weeks since polling day and there’s still no sign of a government being formed any time soon. The current belief is that when the Dáil next votes on the matter (at its next meeting on April 6 – two weeks from now) we still won’t have a new government. We’re in uncharted…
When the new Dáil meets on March 10th its first job is to elect a Ceann Comhairle. Up to now this has been pre-ordained by the Executive and so took a little time. But now there will be an election by secret ballot. It hasn’t been done before, so this could take some time. Each…
By Rory Costello, University of Limerick Government formation is not just a numbers game. Political parties campaign to a large part on policy, and we must assume that people who vote for a party do so as an endorsement of those policies. If we view the new Dáil as representative of the spread of views…
Irish Politics Forum 