Ian Paisley is to meet the Taoiseach in Dublin today (don’t expect any snowballs to be thrown), in what is being billed (sound file) as a significant consolidation of the ‘new dispensation’. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
There may have been an announcement of a review of the different tax rates between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, to be conducted by Sir David Varney a former chairman of HM Revenue and Customs – it was one element of that total package announced by Gordon Brown – but as the Belfast Telegraph’s Mark Hookhan reports, according to the Secretary of State for Wales, etc, corporation tax will not be affected. Speaking yesterday in Westminster, Mr Hain …
Yesterday’s pile on the M9 doesn’t seem to have sunk into some drivers. Yesterday’s crash resulted in nearly 100 vehicles piling into one another in various incidents between Kildare and Naas and this morning comes the sad news that one woman died shortly after falling into a coma. One taxi driver told me this morning that one his way into work this morning the fog was just as thick, and people were traveling past him at a good 50 mph. …
It’s not yet arrived at the dire, and potentially expensive, situation that the Northern Ireland water and sewage system is in, but the European Commission has given the Republic of Ireland government final written warnings “for failing to fully comply with a 2002 European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling requiring drinking water supply to be clear of [a] potentially deadly bacteria” and “for failing to comply with a 2005 ECJ ruling requiring greater controls on pollution of surface water by …
RTE reported yesterday that 18% of the Republic’s urban waste water is only receiving preliminary treatment. Not a patch on our loathsome, and effectively unregulated, discharge of raw sewage into the Irish Sea. The Environmental Protection Agency itself reports: – At 30 locations, mainly towns or cities discharging to estuaries or coastal waters, the required secondary wastewater treatment plants were not in place. At these locations wastewater was being discharged with either no treatment or basic treatment in non-compliance with …
According to the joint statement from Prime Minster Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern – “The message of the electorate is clear.” Riiight.. sure it is.. But it gets better worse, Tony Blair’s also promoting the idea that the election was actually about those ‘bread and butter’ issues – “The issues were amazingly, in a sense hearteningly enough, water rates, health, education and the economy and so on.” Issues which, admittedly, all parties sought to highlight in advance.. even if …
UTV picks up on the particular risks facing the Irish economy from a global economic downturn, as detailed by the European Economic Advisory Group which is holding a series of press conferences across Europe to launch their 2007 Report on the European Economy, press release here – the full report can be downloaded here. The report includes a chapter which focusses on the risks to the economies of Ireland and Italy [pdf file].. one an example of expansionary shock, the …
The Irish government Finance Minister Brian Cowen has announced that his government is proposing five specific cross-border funds, covering: “education, skills and innovation; energy research including renewable and sustainable energy; regional development; tourism development; poverty, social inclusion and community infrastructure.” Although it’s not all new money, and despite the suggestion in the lead paragraph from the linked report, it probably isn’t actually dependent on a restored assembly. Notably there is already a fund for energy research including renewable and sustainable …
When David Ford told Radio Slugger (3/4 of the way through) he was not part of the moderate middle, but rather the ‘radical centre’, he may well have had this manifesto commitment’s in mind. Alliance would like to see the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Gardai able to pursue suspects on the other side of the Irish border. Such an instrument could be based on the European Union`s Schengen Agreement and would be an important tool in the …
The Sunday Business Post/Red C tracking poll continues to chart the long term trends in declared first preference votes ahead of the expected summer Irish General Election. Red C Managing Director Richard Colwell gives his view on the results here – and there’s a brief RTÉ report hereFrom the Sunday Business Post When we look at the underlying trends in support, based on three months of our tracking poll data rolled together, the key insight is that the long-term downward …
While the Secretary of State for Wales, etc, Peter Hain maintains that he had “never proposed doing anything other than attend and watch the match” – despite acknowledging, the day before, that the question of marking the day itself was “being considered and discussed” – in today’s Irish Times the GAA reveals that the suggestion that a wreath be laid at the ground was raised, “rather obliquely”, by the British ambassador.. about 2 weeks ago.. something they say was felt …
In Saturday’s Irish Times, former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald brought back into focus an all-too-often neglected aspect of the relative economic performance between north and south.. the Provisional IRA’s activity. As he points out, it’s a topic he has covered at several points over the past 35 years [subs req] “in the year 1953, I found that in that year Northern Ireland’s output per head was 27 per cent higher than ours. However, when I next wrote on this subject (Towards …
The Secretary of State for Wales, etc, Peter Hain is attempting to recover any lost ground in his campaign after the criticism levelled at him in the Sun.. and, reportedly, in some other important areas – [and on his Birthday too – Ed] – by issuing an official statement on the Ireland V England rugby match at Croke Park next weekend, claiming that he had “never proposed doing anything other than attend and watch the match”.. Hmm.. just a reminder …
Minister McDowell is stirring the pot again, this time he is questioning the enormous cost of the tribunal system. Bertie Ahern, in a pre-recorded lunchtime interview on Newstalk will put some ‘distance’ between himself and his tainiste: “I’m not going to call for the end of something I was subject to. “I was up in front of it because of the position I held. A number of years ago we decided in all tribunals that there was a date they …
It is notoriously difficult to do comparisons across the border, but it seems that the National Educational Welfare Board is concerned enough with parental attitudes towards their children’s’ education to have published a report today commissioned from Mori Ireland. Yet the most interesting detail is in the statement from CEO Eddie Ward, that 20% of the population don’t sit the Leaving Cert (H/T Willis): “Many thousands of our children and young people do not attend school regularly and their life …
Apparently, Prince’s Harry and William are great fans of English rugby, and follow them all over the world. But, as the Belfast Telegraph reports, they will not be coming to Dublin for the big England match. Other committments have been cited, but Ashleigh Wallace speculates that their attendance looked likely to spark a major controversy.
Kevin Connolly with some thoughts of the longer term context of Sinn Fein’s tentative decision to support the PSNI… He contrasts the Croke Park of 21 November 1920 to the one later this month when England play Ireland in the 6 Nations Championship…
So, that Irish Times Poll. The core vote for the parties when the undecided voters are included is: Fianna Fáil 35 per cent (down three points); Fine Gael 19 per cent (down one point); Labour 8 per cent (no change); Sinn Féin 7 per cent (up two points); Green Party 6 per cent (up three points); PDs 1 per cent (down one point); Independents/others 6 per cent (down one point); undecided 18 per cent (up one point). From a Sinn …
There’s a lot of material in today’s Irish Times poll. Apart from the obvious Northern Irish interest in the fate of Sinn Fein (up 2 points btw), the most striking detail is the rating of the government parties: and especially the Progressive Democrats at 1%. Even allowing for a three per cent margin of error, that would be cataclysmic if repeated in the June poll. Mary Harney will need some serious results to show from her health reforms in the …
Policy Exchange’s recent research into multiculturalism, not only created a media splash in England, but in Ireland too. David Cameron’s remarks on the subject were reported (subs needed) in the Irish Times on Tuesday Mr Cameron identified five barriers, or “Berlin walls of division”, in the way of community cohesion in modern Britain – extremism, multiculturalism, uncontrolled immigration, poverty and educational apartheid. And he coupled that with a strong insistence that politicians should “not hide behind the screen of cultural …
