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…
Internationally Ireland is seen as a beacon in the development of deliberative democracy. There has been plenty of positive hype (not least in international media coverage) about the outcomes of the 2018 abortion and 2015 marriage equality referendums that followed recommendations by the Irish Citizens’ Assembly (or CA, that operated between 2016-18) and Irish Constitutional…
Guest post by Dr Anthony Costello, lecturer in EU Politics and Comparative Government at the Department of Government, University College Cork. Following the United Kingdom’s (UK) 2016 Brexit Referendum, regional disparities in referendum results inspired fresh questions regarding the future make-up of the United Kingdom.
The inaugural meeting of the new Irish Citizens’ Assembly was held in Dublin Castle last Saturday. Its establishment and the fact that it follows in the wake of the 2012-14 Constitutional Convention marks Ireland out as a world first in the repeated use of a ‘mini-public’ (deliberative) approach to constitutional review, an approach that includes…
The sub-committee on Dáil reform published its ‘draft’ final report yesterday and it makes for very pleasurable reading. Among the key proposals are the following: Dáil agenda and order of business to be determined by a new business committee chaired by the Ceann Comhairle; A new and powerful Budget Oversight Committee whose work will be…
A (still very preliminary) reaction to the Programme for Government proposal that was launched this afternoon (available here). There is a lot of food for thought here. A lot of interesting proposals – at least on paper – and also some daft ones. Certainly a lot to chew over. A fair bit of things that we’d…
A (still very preliminary) reaction to the Programme for Government proposal that was launched this afternoon (available here). There is a lot of food for thought here. A lot of interesting proposals – at least on paper – and also some daft ones. Certainly a lot to chew over. A fair bit of things that…
Guest Post by Anthony O’Halloran On Thursday, March 10th an important opportunity will arise to change the gender landscape of Irish politics for the better. The first important constitutional obligation of the 32nd Dáil will be to elect the Ceann Comhairle. Most of the public commentary to date has focused on how the next Ceann Comhairle…
Last week the Dáil passed a government motion to make three important changes to Standing Orders (in typical Dáil fashion with little debate). In summary, the changes that will be in operation from the start of the next Dáil session are: A secret ballot to elect the Ceann Comhairle, Use of d’Hondt formula to allocate…
More hints are emerging about the government’s intentions relating to the election of the next Ceann Comhairle. As reported in a recent post, the government is about to propose a change to Dáil standing orders so that the Ceann Comhairle of the next Dáil will be elected by a secret ballot of all members. As a number of…
Irish Politics Forum 