Back to the Future?: Good news for Fianna Fail and bad news for government parties in the Spring 2013 opinion polls

Adrian Kavanagh, 27th January/8th February/16 February/23 February/2 March/16 March 2013 A series of recent Irish-Ipsos MRBI, and Sunday Times-Behaviour & Attitudes polls, in addition to two Sunday Business Post-Red C polls (polls on 27th January and 24th February) and three Sunday Independent-Millward Brown polls (17th February, 3rd March and 17th March) have offered grim reading for the two government parties and…

The slow Fianna Fail march continues apace – Commentary on the Paddy Power-Red C poll (10th January 2013)

Adrian Kavanagh, 10th January 2013 Today’s Paddy Power-Red C poll is the first major poll of the 2013 calendar year and the first such one since the Budget in December. As with the December 2nd Sunday Business Post-Red C poll, it does not make for pleasant reading for Fine Gael, with the party support levels down three percentage…

Avoiding short-term thinking in politics

Posted by Eoin O’Malley (7th January, 2013) One of the most common complaints about democracy is that it shortens our rulers’ time horizons to an extent that damages our interests. If you are a hereditary absolute monarch, presumably you take a very long view, as you care about the inheritance you leave your children and grandchildren. But…

Blue Da Ba Dee? Bad news for Fine Gael in December 2nd Sunday Business Post-Red C poll

Adrian Kavanagh, 1st December 2012 Tomorrow’s Sunday Business Post-Red C poll offers grim reading for Fine Gael, with the party support levels down six percentage points on the previous such poll. This poll puts national support levels for the main political parties and groupings, and relative to the most recent Sunday Business Post-Red C poll on 28th October 2012, as…

Bill to reduce the number of TDs

Posted by Elaine Byrne Deputy Brendan Griffin (Kerry South) has introduced a proposed amendment to the constitution which seeks to – Hold a referendum on reducing the Dail to 101 members From 100 evenly populated constituencies Retain the PRSTV system. Deputy Griffin says the primary purpose of the amendment is to help “ensure that…

Deliberative democracy: Lessons for practitioners

Here are some edited highlights of the Deliberative Democracy conference held in the Royal Irish Academy some weeks ago, including interviews with the participants there – some of the world’s leading experts on deliberative democracy in practice – on the prospects for the Irish Constitutional Convention.

Lessons from Children’s Referendum

It is still far too early to be definitive in the analysis of the result of the Children’s Referendum obviously research is needed in order to ascertain why turnout was so low and why people voted in the way that they did. What we can say is that Saturday voting is unlikely to be the…

New Book: RADICAL OR REDUNDANT? MINOR PARTIES IN IRISH POLITICS

RADICAL OR REDUNDANT? MINOR PARTIES IN IRISH POLITICS edited by Liam Weeks (UCC) and Alistair Clark (Newcastle University) (History Press Ireland, Dublin, 2012) This book examines the fortunes of small political parties in Ireland and asks why no new party has yet emerged. While the type of minor political party in Ireland has varied, their fate,…

New legislation to allow Oireachtas Inquiries

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has today outline his plans for to allow Oireachtas Inquires within the limits of the rejection of the constitutional referendum last year. the RTE report is here. The official announcement is here The Bill will now be drafted so much is still to be played for,…

Pilot Irish Data Website

On Friday, the Ireland Stat pilot website went live at http://www.irelandstat.gov.ie According to the DPER the objective of Ireland Stat is “to provide a whole-of-Government performance measurement system. At its simplest the website brings together data from a whole variety of different sources and sets them in the context of Department’s goals to show what…

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Irish Politics Forum

A PSAI blog for discussion of politics, policy and political reform