Over on the excellent British blog site Democratic Audit, Jack Bridgewater from the University of Kent cast an eye over the campaign that led to the decision to repeal the 8th amendment last month in this post. His focus is on the process that led up to the referendum and, particularly, the role of the…
Guest post by Conor Little (University of Copenhagen) and Diarmuid Torney (Dublin City University). Ireland’s climate policy process has again reached a crucial stage. The publication of a draft National Mitigation Plan is one of the final steps towards formulating Ireland’s climate policy for the next five years.
If you felt that media coverage of the recent US Presidential Election appeared to lack focus on policy issues, you may well be correct.
Guest post by Jonathan Arlow. In 2013 the Department of Social Protection commissioned a report by Indecon International Economic Consultants to evaluate the effectiveness of the JobBridge internship programme. Given that the minister for Social Protection, Leo Varadkar, has publicly criticised JobBridge and announced that he is expecting a second review by Indecon into the…
With the new government already having suffered its first defeat, we are clearly not in a period of politics as usual in the Oireachtas. This raises the question of whether Ireland’s ‘Triple Lock’ on overseas deployments will take on greater significance in the new Dáil. The ‘Triple Lock’ which entered the political lexicon during the…
Post by Muireann O’Dwyer School of Politics and International Relations, UCD As the dust settles after the publication of the longest ever Programme for Government, it’s a good time to start taking a deeper look at the promises contained within the published plans for the new government. A document born of long negotiation, it is clear…
The Spring Economic Statement delivered today (see here) represents a very belated dipping of the toe in the water towards greater budgetary transparency by the government. We were promised this in 2011. The fact that it’s finally starting to happen four years later and coincidentally on the eve of the next election – is noteworthy.…
By Nuala Haughey Almost fifteen years after the idea was first proposed in a Labour Party private members’ Bill, Ireland is due to get a mandatory lobbying register. The online database will capture information about the efforts of interest groups and professional lobbyists alike to influence policy and legislation. The database is provided for in…
We’re all worried about the decline in turnout, aren’t we? Politicians, academics and other worthies march up to Glenties every year to worry about our failing politics, and to self-flagellate about our failure to reform it. And it’s not just us we’re worried about this year. With the results of the 2014 European elections we…
This is the text of an article published in the Sunday Business Post 22nd December 2013 On the night of 6th December 2008 there were widespread protests against the government in Athens. In one middle class district in the centre of Athens, Exarcheia, there were confrontations with the police. Police were ordered to leave the…
Irish Politics Forum 