On Morning Ireland this morning Fianna Fail TD Dara Callaery suggested that the Government had a series of referendums planned for next year. The question is what will these be on? Two we know of. They are the long awaited Children’s Rights Referendum and of course a referendum to abolish Seanad Eireann. But what else can we expect? I asked for suggestions on Facebook and Twitter. There was some interesting answers. Most people wanted a Children’s Rights Referendum...
Its all over. The candidates can lie in this morning as its now the turn of the political hacks who all across the country will be turning up to the count centres across the 43 constituencies to start tallying the Presidential Election. The boxes will be opened at 9am when the votes will be sorted and tallied. Then the Votes for the presidential election will be sorted. Once sorted the votes will be counted and the result sent to Dublin. We wont have...
With all the focus on the Presidential Election on October 27th, the two Referenda on the Constitution seem to have slipped under the radar. At home we received the the Referendum Commission’s booklet to the referenda and much like their website I was very disappointed in the the information given. While they give the basic information on the actual changes to the Constitution as set out in the 29th Amendment to the Constitution, regarding Judges Pay, and the 30th Amendment to...
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland have launched a consultation on their Broadcasting Code on Referenda and Election Coverage (PDF). While it contains all the usual stuff on fair and equal access and the ban on political advertisements, it also upholds the Moratorium as applied at the General Election earlier this year. While reading through the draft code, I came upon an issue, should the same Moratorium be applied to Referenda and Elections? In the case of elections I can...
So it looks like we will be having another referendum in Ireland this year. Unfortunately its not the long awaited Children’s Right Referendum, but a referendum to remove Article 35.5 from Bunreacht na hEireann. That article states The remuneration of a judge shall not be reduced during his continuance in office. This article was included to ensure that the Government of the day did not punish judges through their pay. While this may have been seen as an important safeguard in the...
I am on the mailing for Yes2AV and today they sent out a preview of their broadcast tonight for the referendum on May 5th. This will be the first broadcast and it will be aired at 5:55pm on BBC 1 and an hour later on BBC 2 and ITV. I think it is a really smart broadcast and focuses and all the relevant stuff. Must say it has impressed me hugely. Related articles AV Special: What is it? How...
I was doing my usual perusal of Guido Fawke’s blog this morning. This is a blog I normally find interesting and informative but as the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum campaign continues it seems to be peddling more lies about AV and STV (the PR varient used in Ireland). To try and show AV as a confusing system he posted this picture to try and show how confusing it is. Now that picture above would be ok if it showed...
Image via Wikipedia Although they made sound like turkeys voting against Christmas, two Senators have made good arguments in favour of keeping Seanad Eireann. Yesterday speaking to the Irish Times, Independent Senator Joe O’Toole had the following to say, Speaking this afternoon, Sen. O’Toole acknowledged the existing arrangement was “undemocratic, unfair” and “unrepresentative” and described voting arrangements for the Upper House, where it does not have a universal mandate, as “indefensible”. However, the independent senator said the abolition of...
Image via Wikipedia So Fianna Fail have done a U-turn on the Seanad according to the Irish Times, they along with Fine Gael, Labour, the Green Party and Sinn Fein no longer want an upper house in the Oireachtas. Is this want the people of Ireland want? Do we want an unfeathered Dáil whos only check on power is the President, who’s powers at that are very limited. While I agree with those in favour of abolition that the...
Image via Wikipedia So what do three of the above have in common at the moment? To me they represent why Fianna Fail is no longer fit to govern. O’Dea lied under oath, and was forced to resign. Coughlan thinks young people emigrate for fun and theres the whole Hanger 6 debacle Ahern was cheerleader in chief for O’Dea and he is the Justice Minister! This government is beyond itself. It is out of ideas. It has no idea...
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