Theresa Reidy and myself had a piece in the Irish Times earlier this week on the need to think about change for referendum rules. Many of the comments on The Irish Times site were from no voters in the Children’s Referendum who appeared to think that we would seek to ensure that their voices are…
Adrian Kavanagh, 18th October 2012 – updates on 19th November 2012 A number of recent opinion polls all point towards 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 positioned as the second most popular party in…
Regular contributor Donal has asked us to link to his case for Swiss-style citizens initiative and direct democracy, which the Human Rights in Ireland website* has just published as part of the series Shadow Constitutional Convention, He argues that there may be change in the criteria of decision-making at the top; change in social habits…
Royal Irish Academy, Dawson Street November 2 2012 1.15-5.30pm An event organised by We the Citizens, in cooperation with the Royal Irish Academy and the G1000 (Belgium) This event is designed to coincide with the establishment of the Irish government’s constitutional convention. This is the first time an Irish government has involved ordinary citizens in…
Adrian Kavanagh, 22nd September 2012 The first Sunday Business Post-Red C (23rd September) poll following the summer recess points towards a gain in Sinn Fein support and a slight decline in support levels for Labour and the Independents and Others grouping. The poll puts national support levels for the main political parties and groupings as follows: Fine…
The 2012 Annual Conference will be hosted by the University Of Ulster, Magee Campus, Londonderry, and will take place on 19-21 October 2012 in the City Hotel, Queen’s Quay. The headline theme for this conference will be “Politics, Culture and Society in a Changing Ireland“. Full Details available at http://psai.ie/conference.asp
A link here to the RTE Player’s version of ‘Inside the Department’, a documentary that provides some interesting insights into the realities of governance in today’s Ireland. Among other things, it documents the difficulty of leading a department that you have verbally eviscerated in opposition (“malevolently dysfunctional” is a particularly good catchphrase).
John Drennan’s Sindo article points to growing backbench opposition to the government’s proposed referendum on abolishing the Seanad. This development is unsurprising, given the tightness of electoral margins in Ireland’s political system and the personal investment of Oireachtas members in retaining their positions (although, as we all know, the pension’s not too bad if you do get the…
Posted by Elaine Byrne The Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality has invited written submissions from interested groups or individuals in relation to the Heads of the Criminal Justice (Corruption) Bill. If you wish to make a written submission you can send it to the Clerk to the Committee at: justiceanddefence@oir.ie before the end…
Posted by Matt Wall A letter to the Irish Times from six former Senators represents a faltering start to the campaign against the government’s plans to abolish the Seanad. The six argue, as many others have and will, for reform rather than abolition. Sadly, their case is not helped by the farcical nature of many of the ‘debates’…
Irish Politics Forum 