Continuing my look through the motions ahead of Young Fine Gael National Conference in Tullamore the next motion to pique my interest is one from my own branch in UCC. The motion reads as follows: YFG believes that a graduate tax should be introduced for all college graduates as a means of funding their education and the present entry fees should be phased out over 5 years. Households with an income of below €45,000 would be exempted One the issues I always...
Young Fine Gael is holding its National Conference in Tullamore, Co. Offaly between the 17th-19th February. One of the motions that has been accepted for debate is on Fracking or to be more exact Hydraulic fracturing which is way to extract Gas from shale. The motion from UCD YFG reads as follows YFG approves of the process of fracking as can it can prove a viable energy source in Ireland for the foreseeable future Clare County Council recently banned the process while in Leitrim and...
This Column appeared in the Cork Independent on Thursday 26th May 2011 I joined Fine Gael in 2004. If someone told me on that day, that in seven years time Enda Kenny would be welcoming the British Queen and American President to Ireland as the leader of the largest party in Dáil Eireann and the Toaiseach of the largest Government Majority in coalition with Labour. I probably would have laughed in their face and said in your dreams. During...
Today Micheal Martin announced his knew frontbench. It would seem that their is a job for everyone in the Fianna Fail Parliamentary Party, plus a councillor. Here is the full list: Leader and Spokesperson on Northern Ireland: Micheál Martin TD Deputy Leader and Spokesperson on Finance: Brian Lenihan TD Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Trade (also Party Whip): Seán Ó Fearghail TD Spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Financial Sector Reform: Michael McGrath TD Spokesperson on Public Sector Reform: Sean...
Image via Wikipedia That was some weekend wasn’t it? I have never in my life experienced a weekend in which so much has happened politically. We entered the weekend with Brian Cowen as leader of Fianna Fáil and we finished it with him as a caretaker Taoiseach. His resignation as leader of Fianna Fáil was not that surprising considering the amount or pressure on him from all parts of the Fianna Fáil part and the failure of stalwarts like...
As the election was announced yesterday, I noticed messages appearing in my Facebook feed like this one: It would seem that Fine Gael have launched a facebook widget which is linked from their website. It is an interesting move from the party and I wonder how it will play out on Facebook. I myself am a bit sceptical because it seems to be trying to use American Campaign techniques, and I am not sure how it will go down. It also is not...
Image via Wikipedia So Fianna Fail are as divided as Fine Gael was last summer. The Fianna Fail parliamentary party meeting gets under way at 5:30pm and is expected to last until around 9pm. The wording of the motion to be debated is reported to be “That the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has confidence in Brian Cowen TD as leader of Fianna Fáil.” Its been a tough week for Brian Cowen in his office as Taoiseach and Leader of...
Image via Wikipedia Fine Gael have today have “stood down” the party website for 3 to 4 weeks and replaced it with a crowd-sourcing site to ask the people of Ireland their view on what the Parties policies should be. In an email to members launching the “new” site leader Enda Kenny had this to say: Fine Gael want to invite people from all walks of life to join with us and help build our plans and ideas for...
Image via Wikipedia Today’s Editorial in the Irish Independent asks for that the following occurs, On December 7, the Dail must pass the Budget. Then the Finance Bill should go through with unprecedented speed, to clear the way for the General Election. Most people would agree that that is the way that the Government should be planning things, if the budget passes. But are they? According to Leo Varadkar TD, they are not. Under Fianna Fáil’s plan, there are...
Image via Wikipedia One paragraph from yesterdays Observer’s Editorial should be memorised and remembered for a long time. Much of that story is familiar from other countries caught out by the credit crunch. But Ireland’s unique misfortune is to have, in Brian Cowen’s Fianna Fáil government, leaders who shipwrecked the economy and then capsized the lifeboats. The initial crisis response in 2008 was designed in such a way as effectively to absorb the doomed banking sector into the state,...
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