The Final 25

Whether they make it or not, this is what the government say will come before the Dail before the end of Term. 25 bills covering some huge and some not so huge areas of legislative importance.

The big question is with FF sitting pretty in the polls, will Bertie feel that maybe waiting around much longer isn't in his interests. He's always said Summer and he has gone full term each time, but if he got another bounce from the Peace Process and in the face of a possible Tribunal appearance who would blame him for an early jump.

Anyhoo heres the list.


Arts Sport and Tourism
1
Sports Council (Amendment) Bill
To provide the granting of powers to the Irish Sports Council to establish subsidiary companies. This power is required to give effect to decisions by the Government to establish an Institute of Sport, and to restructure the National Coaching and Training Centre as Coaching Ireland
Communications Marine and Natural Resources

2
Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill
To provide for the creation of indictable offences for breaches of enforcement measures imposed by the Commission for Communications Regulation, to strengthen ComReg's powers of enforcement and investigation, to provide for regulation of the IEDR and to provide for the establishment of an emergency call answering service
Community Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

3
Charities Bill
To regulate charities, so as to ensure accountability and to protect against abuse of charitable status and fraud
Defence

4
Curragh of Kildare Bill
To provide for the establishment of a statutory body to manage the Curragh, with the exception of the military establishment at the Defence Forces Training Centre, and to update the existing Curragh of Kildare Acts
Education and Science

5
Student Support Bill
To place all student support schemes on a statutory footing, to designate VECs as awarding authorities, to provide for a system of appeals and penalties for fraudulent applications for grants and to repeal the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts 1968 to 1992
Enterprise Trade and Employment

6
Consumer Protection Bill
To establish the new National Consumer Agency, to transpose the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive and to update and modernise the current framework of consumer law

7
Control of Exports Bill
To update Ireland's export control legislation in the area of strategic export controls in line with recommendations of the 2004 Forfás review of Ireland's export controls system

8
Protection of Employment (Exceptional Collective Redundancies) Bill
To address cases of collective redundancies where specific situations apply requiring the establishment of a new body, the Redundancy Panel
Environment Heritage and Local Government

9
Electoral Bill
To address the issues arising from the recent Supreme Court judgement concerning assenting to the nomination of non-party candidates at Dáil elections
Finance

10
Asset Covered Securities (Amendment) Bill
To amend the statutory framework for Ireland's covered bonds regime, as established by the Assets Covered Securities Act 2001, so as to ensure Ireland's competitiveness in the wake of recent international and EU developments in the covered bonds market

11
Ethics Bill
To amend current ethics legislation to require office holders and Oireachtas members to seek the opinion of the Standards in Public Office Commission before accepting a significant gift or loan from a friend, and to abide by that decision

12
Finance Bill
To give statutory effect to Budget Day decisions and to make other changes to tax law

13
Markets in Financial Instruments Bill
To transpose certain provisions of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive which require primary legislation and to make necessary technical amendments to various Acts
Foreign Affairs

14
Passports Bill
To regulate the issuance of passports, to assist in the introduction of biometric Irish passports and to address the need to introduce a series of new offences relating to the fraudulent use of passports
Health and Children

15
Adoption (Hague Convention, Adoption Authority) Bill
To ratify the Hague Convention on the Protection of Children, to provide for the creation of the Adoption Authority as the Central Authority required under the terms of the Convention to oversee the implementation in effecting intercountry adoptions and to deal with miscellaneous issues regarding domestic adoption

16
Pharmacy (No. 1) Bill
To provide for fitness to practice regulations for pharmacists and the removal of the restriction on pharmacists educated in other EU and EEA countries from managing or supervising a pharmacy in Ireland that is less than 3 years old and to deal with a number of issues raised by the Pharmacy Review Group

17
Voluntary Health Insurance Board (Amendment) Bill
To address VHI's corporate status and related matters
Justice Equality and Law Reform

18
Coroners Bill
To provide for reform of the Coroners Service and to replace the Coroners Act of 1962

19
Courts and Court Officers (Amendment) Bill
To provide for an increase in the number of judges of the High Court, Circuit Court and District Court

20
Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill
To provide for miscellaneous changes to the criminal law and to give effect to a number of international instruments

21
Immigration and Residence Bill
To update the law on immigration, residence and other matters relating to non-nationals
Social and Family Affairs

22
Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Bill
To provide for certain outstanding Budget measures scheduled to take effect during 2007
Taoiseach

23
Statute Law Revision Bill
To remove 3,000 obsolete and redundant primary Acts that predate the foundation of the State from the Irish Statute Book
Transport

24
Dublin Transport Authority Bill
To provide for the establishment of a transport authority to oversee the implementation of Transport 21 in the Greater Dublin Area

25
Roads (Amendment) Bill
To amend legislation relating to roads and the National Roads Authority

A Leak Less Orde In Awry

The PSNI Chief Constable, Hugh Orde, in a leaked memo to senior staff has apparently criticised SF and the SDLP for their attacks on RUC members for covering up loyalist killers. Now leaving aside the fact that 'leaked' is normally a euphamism for 'press release', someone needs to grab Hugh and say NO NO NO.

You can't spin this one as being Sinn Feins fault. You cant accuse nationalists in the SDLP of making up these reports and over reacting. This isn't unfortunate or unlucky in the Malcolm McArthur sense, this is collusion, this is perversion of justice. Blaming those who criticise you is missing the wood for the splinter on the edge of the twig, on the branch on the tree in the bog down in the valley - oh.

Not Enough Pencils M'Lud

Not satisfied with making a balls of e voting and the electoral register update, the Department of Environment has now realised that we dont have enough polling booths for the forthcoming elections!?

The decision has been made therefore to remove the franchise from those over 85 and residents of Leitrim.

SBP Poll

More doom and gloom for Inda in this Sundays poll.

FF 42 UP 3
FG 21 DOWN 2
LAB 12 NO CHANGE
SF 7 DOWN 1
GREEN 7 NO CHANGE
PDS 3 DOWN 1
INDS 8 UP 1

FF are now within a few per cent of majority territory, 45% might be enough to secure such a feat, considering they got a 7%+ seat bonus at the last general election.

I'm still finding it hard to believe that something won't come up between now and polling day, but time is rapidly running out. Unless the tribunals land a direct hit on the Teflon one, it looks certain that FF will be back.

The PDs are impossible to guage, they are effectively a collection of independents, so you can never bank on them one way or another. I'm still thinking wipe out and lucky to hold onto three seats.

Labour aren't doing much in the polls, but one way or another if the PDs die on their ass the red (ish) army will be in a position to do business with FF. Thats if FF need a partner of any size.

SF are on 7 and that number will rise. Not only will they get a bump from the recent decision on policing, they are also set to get two months of publicity with the assembly elections in NI.

Greens hold steady and should pick up a few seats here and thar. But if FF keep gaining then it really wont be an issue.

Independents, we'll see what the issues are closer to the day. Not likely to do as well as last time, no matter what the figures say.

Sulky Trevor Needs to Wise Up

I have a slight liking of the Greens. You have to like them a bit, even if you're not mad on their policies. I mean they were formed by a load of hippy types, who disavowed politics such as we know it, they're pretty ramshackle in their organisation and yet they keep going. And in fairness they have managed to shift the agenda, somewhat to the left in many areas. They have even developed a little bit of organisational and political nous.

The country seems ready to have a Green Party in Coalition. We were ready to give them the necessary votes and transfers to make them king makers and then Trevor opens his gob. Young Trevor has given out about not being allowed on the shows like the Late Late and Tubridy Tonight prior to the election. Now this kind of huff has worked in the past with Podge and Rodge, but it's all getting a bit whiny now. Instead of sounding like a leader, he is merely drawing attention to the fact that the National Broadcaster (such as it is) do not take his party seriously.

Surely someone else could have made these comments if they had to be made. Try to leave the leader with just a smidgeon of dignity.

Unionists Accuse SF / SDLP of Grandstanding Tactics - No Debate on Collusion

The two main unionist parties in Norn Iron have ruled out any attempts to debate RUC collusion in the murder of Catholics on the grounds that it would lead to Grandstanding by Nationalist parties.

This is of course a similar tactic to that used by Stalin in an attempt to remove critics of the fourth five year plan, (the one that was big into tractors and betamax video machines) by ruling out all debate and ruling in pogroms.

To compound their sins on this one, the DUP are defending the rights of police officers to obstruct the investigation into this matter.

The DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr claims they were within their rights to withhold co-operation because Ms O'Loan was engaged in a "fishing exercise" without any hard evidence of collusion.He has also rejected suggestions that they had moral obligation to co-operate, saying: "At the end of the day, it boils down to what is your legal right."

This is of course akin to saying a murderer being questioned by police has a legal right not to assist the policeman with his investigations, because a. the cop is only fishing for information without the evidence to prove it and b. he is acting within his legal rights.

As stupid positions go, this one really takes the biscuit.

You Are Now Entering Free Londonderry

Derry City Council have failed in their bid to change the city to Derry (dropping the London bit). In a decision which is certain to piss nationalists off from a height, Mr Justice Weatherup ruled that just because the council had changed its title to Derry, this did not mean the name specified back in the 17th century was changed. The council had wanted the government to accept its view that the name of the city is Derry rather than Londonderry.

Londonderry was established in a Royal Charter granted by King James I in 1613. The name has naturally been a source of contention. Such contention is understandable considering that London is internationally recognised as a deeply troubled area, largely populated by 'chavs' (an English variety of the common or garden spide).

Unionists can now shelve plans for they're 'I Cant believe it's not Londonderry' Ad campaign. Derry's County Board are to meet tomorrow night to determine whether the County will use the name on Jerseys in next summers Championship.

Paying Over The Odds for the Fourth Green Field

1 Billion plus in the NDP for cross border projects. The DUP grudgingly say thank you, although many of their supporters have collectively said fuck off in various blogs. The logic is of course straightforward, the border is economically a pain in the arse and this money will help remove some of its significance.

Serious money for tourism, cross border energy, science and technology, human capital and my own favourite - The Ulster Canal (woot!!!!). While 1 billion out of the pot is damn all, its certainly more than counties like Donegal are gonna see in the carve up. And its only a tiny fraction of what we'll eventually have to shell out if we ever get the chance to buy the fourth green field back from her maj.

You always end up paying over the odds for agricultural land.

The NDP explained

Shamelessly stolen from the Indo

All those NDP terms explained

'Removing infrastructure bottlenecks that constrain economic development' - New traffic lights.

'Sustaining high-value employment opportunities to foster an inclusive society' - More branches of McDonald's.

'Strategic development of gateway cities' - Payola for FF builders in Offaly.

'Promotion of balanced regional development' - Bagging a second seat in Mayo.

'Maintenance of a framework of macroeconomic and budgetary stability' - Tax.

'Affordable housing' - Broom cupboard in stab city for €250,000

It's Just a Jump to The Left....?

The NDP announced with much Hoo Haa, well more hoo than haa if truth be told. The Fuhrer describes the current government as leaving all others in the shade, Bertie points out that this NDP is all about Social Inclusion. Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, this one's for the Children.

Totalling 180bn, this is a plan which contains virtually nothing. Look through it and there is nothing committed to. Specific projects when they are mentioned aren't costed, headings that are costed do not include specific proposals. It's a bit like going on the piss and spending a large wad of cash and not quite remembering what you spent it on.

God be with the days when Albert could buy an election for 8bn punt. Our expectations have risen so high that we now expect to spend 180bn and get nothing in return. Gotta love new socialist Bertie.

....And Then A Step to The Right

Enda Kenny argues that you can't argue with aspirations, then he declares Ireland is a Celtic and Christian Country - and leaves you to decide yourself whether it should be for a Celtic and Christian people. With no Ivor Callely to disrupt the governments media bandwagon as he did on budget day, Enda took a firm step to the right and brought immigration centre stage, or at least he tried to.

He may well be right up to a point. There really hasn't been much of a debate on this, but whether in the middle of an election campaign is the right time to do it, is another matter. Using immigration as a political football is not in anyones interests. Certainly d'ordinary people of Ireland, not just IBEC and the Equality Authority, should have the right to have their concerns heard - but in an election campaign, slogans as opposed to reasoned argument tend to hold sway.

Prior to the last election, all major parties signed up to a code of practice promising not to have a swipe at minorities. Methinks someone needs to dust that down again and remind Inda that although he may be right about the need for debate, now is not the time.

RUC In Collusion Shocker

So we get an announcement or a leak of kinds that the RUC were actually involved in collusion in a number of murders. Even to a light green republican (thats a D6 republican) this aint exactly news. But what does come as interesting is the timing of the announcement.

Why should this appear in the papers now. Surely no one is trying to play silly buggers with the minds of SF members who are deciding whether they want to join the polis.

Selective leaking and strangely timed allegations, it must be the peace process on the move again.

The Letters Page

A couple of gems in the letters page of the Irish Times today. One a rant by the surgical staff in Beaumont Hospital regarding the abuse they are getting from all sides and the terrible conditions in which they work. Fair enough arguments all round. Unfortunately the Irish Health System appears to be structured in a manner best suited to facilitate the game of pass the buck. Comhairle na hOispideal, RCSI, HSE and the Minister all completely blameless. But that is the way it has been for some time.

The other letter which caught my eye was from a prospective candidate in the General. He was opining the fact that the Rabbitte coalition saga is detracting attention from the issues. Of course he is assuming anyone is going to care about the issues. Or even that anybody other than Primetime and the Newspapers are going to argue them anyway. Its gonna take more than Pat Rabbitte to get people focussed on issues other than their SSIA bonus or their cupla quid extra thanks to the budget.

Ireland doesn't do issues.

More Looney

Another sample of the Official Monster Raving Looney Manifesto

Defence
All WMD’s (weapons of Mass Distraction) will be made highly visible so that we can find them.
Any politician wanting to start a war will be shipped off to the country in question with a bag of conkers. They can then conker the country themselves.

The white cliffs of Dover will be painted blue to camouflage our islands.

Buckingham Place will be defended by triffids, cultivated by Prince Charles.

Anyone criticising defence will be made to mend it with de hammer and de nails. (Think this one might have been written by Bertie).

9 Million Reasons to Love Your Boss

You got to love IBEC and ICTU. Like itchy and scratchy, they fight and fight so much and create an atmosphere of mutual hatred so much that people are convinced that workers and employers dont love each other.

In order to rectify this terrible state of affairs the government is committing 9million euro to a fund for improving employee - employer relations. Well extensive research on the net shows that Four Seasons Firearms in the good ole' US of A, will sell you a Smith and Wesson Texas Hold em set. Cards Chips and a handgun. That strikes me as the ultimate in labour relations, winner takes all. The set only costs 700 dollars, so with the Government grant of 9 million every company in the state should be supplied with one, with enough left over for a slap lunch for the IBEC and ICTU head honchos.

Monster Monster Manifesto

As I was hawking through some Manifesto sites recently (as one does) I came across this wee gem. It's an awful shame we don't have a party which compares with the UKs Monster Raving Looney party. I know that people say we don't need one, because all of the parties are taking the piss, but some of the measures in the looney manifesto are just great.

I'll fire up bits from time to time when I cant think of anything more useful to contribute. Todays lessons are in Economics and Environment

Economics

Overview Our team of experts has decided that Income Tax has not proved popular with the public and will therefore be abolished. It was started in order to finance the Napoleonic war in 1799 and we now believe that the time is right to announce the cessation of hostilities with Napoleon. Some of the money left in the coffers will be used to fill in our part of the Channel Tunnel in case no one has mentioned it to the French. Any remaining money will be strategically placed on a horse at the 3-30 at Haydock Park at odds of at least 12/1 in order to see us through until the next election. Income Tax will be officially replaced by people lending the government a bob or two at the end of the week when we’re a bit skint.

Other policies: We will issue a 99p coin to save on change.
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party will not join the single European currency. We will invite all Europeans countries to JOIN THE POUND.
Rich people should be taxed to pay for the printing of money, as they use most of it.
Tax credits will be paid to nice people. There will be a “total bastard” tax for everyone else.

Education
Overview We pledge to reduce class sizes by making the pupils sit closer to one another and issuing them with smaller desks. Any MP whose constituency sells off a school playing field for development will be required to relinquish their own back garden as a replacement sports facility for the school. All future Deputy Prime Ministers will be required to be fluent in at least one language to encourage the education system.

Other policies:

In the interests of fair education policy, under a loony government all children will automatically be given full marks in their exams.

Bright pupils will be provided with dimmer switches to prevent them distracting the rest of the class.

SAT’s tests will be abolished and replaced by Gordon Ramsey style cookery lessons and Rolf Harris art classes.

All children will be given two birthdays like the Queen.

Any child who is cleverer than their teacher will be allowed to take over the class and the teacher will stand at the back with a dunce’s hat on. He or she will then be on half pay until he or she has learnt enough to regain the upper ground. This is our policy for child empowerment.

The number 13 will be abolished due to its longstanding unpopularity. The bus to Acton North will now not have a number on it but not much else will be affected. Therefore if you see a bus with no number on it, it will be going to Acton North. Please remember this for future reference.

Policies for students:
Eton and Oxford will be relocated to Blackpool and Bognor Regis leaving the other Universities with a chance of a bigger intake.

All students will be awarded The Louis Pasteur degree for the scientific research into the growth of mould.

We intend to make free university tuition available to all students named Grant. Any student who says the word “Like” when not grammatically called for, as in, “Hey, I’m .. Like, going down the… like, pub”, or, “I was, like, don’t do that” will be made to go and stay with George Bush for a week in order to discourage them from other stupid ‘Americanisms’

Hanafin Keeps a Straight Face While Describing Public Sector as Efficient

The big news of the weekend was the announcement that the OECD are going to be allowed to get their teeth into the Irish Public Service, with a major study being announced by An T T Taoiseach.

The timing of this is perfect for FF, any adverse publicity pre - election can be referred to the report which the Government have set up. Should FF get back in, they will have a mandate to make changes, should they fail to get back in they will conveniently forget that they commissioned this report and rubbish it whenever those nasty Fine Gaelers try to attack our poor hard working civil servants.

The laugh of the day had to be this mornings Morning Ireland interview, when she claimed that most Irish people would be very happy with the level of public service provision in Ireland. I think it's fair to say even she struggled to keep a straight face saying it, but thats the beauty of radio, we'll never know.

Waterford 1 - 0 Mayo

It really looks like it will be a US style election. Not only do we have negative campaigning, but now it appears that party discipline has been fired out the window as well. John Deasys comments regarding the future tenure of party leader Enda Kenny really shouldn't surprise us all that much. He comes from argumentative stock that Deasy boy. If his daddy wasn't trying a vote of no confidence in his leader, then it was considered a bad year. What really must be seen as depressing for FGers (yes both of them) is the amateur hour manner in which the crisis has been handled. First Damien English allows himself to be used by the media as a second stalking horse. Then Enda issues his response which merely serves to stoke up the controversy further.About the only good thing, and it may prove to be a very good thing, is getting these fiascos out of the way early in the campaign. This would have been a complete disaster had it happened in April, as it is, it'll blow over fairly quickly. It does leave a fairly stark choice for voters in Waterford though, because unless Cullen gets re elected in a FF Govt, one of our largest cities will be sans Minister. Deasy's political rehabilitation, such as it was, ended last week in yet another puff of smoke.

And So It Begins

Runners and riders are now well and truly under orders as the unofficial election campaign gets started.

Fine Gael look set to have taken the campaign down a notch with their attack on Michael McDowell. It doesn't appear as if much sympathy will flow in the direction of the PD fuhrer, however many may mourn the introduction of American style campaigning into the Irish political landscape. Who knows though it could be fun.

Bertie sitting looking into the camera, choking back a tear and saying, I'm An T T Taoiseach and I approve dis message. Pan back to a slick ad which turns Inda from a simple Mayo boy into a mass murderer.

In a system where there are few ideological differences, it becomes about personality, when there is little personality it becomes about altering perception of personality, when all else fails, just hurl a load of shit and hope that some of it will stick.

Fine Gael have gone back to the drawing board following the revelation that Bertie is indeed untouchable and have decided to target the PD's. But what can that achieve. Target the PD seats and try and make FF TDs guilty by association. If it is an actual strategy, then I hope that it's not one that they are paying the Yankees big bucks for.

Anyway the race is on. And just so we can look back on it in a few months time, here are the prices with Boyle Sports on who will form the next Government.


Fianna Fail & Progressive Democrats
11/10
Fianna Fail & Labour
9/4
Fine Gael / Labour & Green's
3/1
Fine Gael & Labour
10/1
Fianna Fail On Their Own
12/1
Fianna Fail & Greens
14/1
Fianna Fail & Sinn Fein
16/1
Fine Gael / Labour & Progressive Democrats
33/1