Posted by Eoin O’Malley (12 March 2013) The ‘sort-of’ revelation on Twitter that Deputy Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan may have used his Oireachtas privilege have penalty points wiped juxtaposes nicely with the eight month sentence imposed on the former UK cabinet minister, Chris Huhne, for perverting the course of justice in a case that started from…
Posted by Eoin O’Malley (20 July, 2012) A central theme in constitutional politics is the separation of powers. The Irish constitution doesn’t refer to this directly, but it is implied and the courts have assumed that a separation of powers does exist. While we can reasonably argue that the judiciary is independent of the executive…
Eoin O’Malley (10 March, 2011) For much of the election campaign parties promised that there would be a change to the way politics was done. This continued to the first day of the 31st Dáil. But will it? One way to judge the government is by the programme for government, and another by its actions.
Eoin O’Malley (10 January, 2011) A bit like democracy, motherhood and apple pie, everyone is in favour of the separation of powers. But how does it work in Ireland and what happens when there’s a conflict between the branches of state power? What should happen?
By Eoin O’Malley, 3rd November, 2010 The decision today to criticise the government for offending the spirit of the constitution is likely to accelerate the holding of the Donegal by-election. But the High Court may be mistaken in reading the procedures for holding a by-election, and so the logic of the decision may be questionable.
Irish Politics Forum 