All 15 junior ministers (Ministers Of State) have been announced today by Enda Kenny, so most of the major decisions are now out of the way. View a full list, plus a breakdown of which departments and senior ministers they are all assigned to... read more & comment>

A list of the entire new Irish government cabinet, selected by Enda Kenny, with details of their ministries/portfolios + A complete list of the new Dail parliamentary groups who will be battling it out over the course of the 31st Dáil... read more & comment>

Fine Gael and Labour have resumed the second day of talks, which will most probably lead to them forming a coalition with a massive majority in the Dáil - 113 out of 166 seats. The only other options seem to be a small number of 'like-minded' Independent TDs teaming up with Fine Gael, or Fianna Fail and Fine Gael forming a coalition... read more & comment>

A major plus about this debate - which featured very little actual debate - was the amount of time spent on economic issues. Although, when the real questions were posed, like exactly how much do your party think we can default on, they all done their usual side-stepping manoeuvres, and avoided making any real commitments... read more & comment>

With ideas for reform popping out of every politicians mouth from the end of last year, it seemed like the political parties had gotten the message loud and clear. The people's feelings had been delivered, via the media, and the politicians were taking our wishes onboard. But that all changed since this campaign kicked off, no thanks to the media... read more & comment>

So, in my estimation based on the handling of these debates, the broadcasters and politicians decide who will take part in them, and the media decide on how they will be viewed by us, the people. But, should the voting public not be the epicentre of these events? Should the debates not be based on their needs?... read more & comment>

Whilst tv debates and other media appearances from the party leaders offer many ways of analysing their policy's, the 'Digital Debate' offers something slightly different. Consisting of the 5 major party leaders answering 10 specific questions by means of a short video reply, this enabled more direct answers than we are used to getting... read more & comment>

The only thing that really bothered me about the composition of this debate, was the exclusion of Sinn Féin - the only party which wants to restore Irish as a proper primary language. Do TG4 not support this stance? And do they not recognise that Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin occupy similar approval ratings in all of the recent polls?... read more & comment>

ThePeoplesEconomy.com is a new website set up, by volunteers and economic experts, to help the Irish public, and candidates in the forthcoming election, to gain some knowledge about our current financial situation. It aims to inform us of the situation which we are currently in, and the possible solutions we may have... read more & comment>

If you want to watch Monday night's 5-way leaders debate again, hosted by Pat Kenny on his Frontline show, it is now available in full. I would have liked to point you guys to some interesting articles which look at the truth behind the respective leaders spin during the debate, but Irish commentators have not penned such articles... read more & comment>

If you missed last nights Re:Public2011 gig at the Button Factory, you can view the entire show on USTREAM, which streamed the show live. The debate gave many often sidelined voices the chance to express their ideas and opinions, with a pre-booked wealth of politicians onstage, apart from one noticeable absentee, Lucinda Creighton (FG)... read more & comment>

Examines whether there were other options available to the government when the bailout was provided to the banking sector, at our expense. This show also looks at the choices which we are faced with right now, and if the measures which have been taken internationally are already having undesirable effects on this island... read more & comment>

Please read this and address the candidates about their stance on this issue, when they call to your doors. This line says it all: In view of the age and fragility of the Women concerned we would hope that the matter would receive significant priority and the immediate attention of the new Government... read more & comment>

A useful website has been launched over the past few weeks to allow Irish voters to ask the 2011 Irish General Election candidates questions, directly, on how they stand on particular policy issues. You can question the stance of candidates from every party, and independents too, and this website will then post the questions online... read more & comment>

Here are details of a great upcoming gig, which should be interesting both to those who are politically aware, and to those who are only beginning to get interested in politics. It's being held next Tuesday at the Button Factory (formerly TBMC) in Dublin, and it will feature General Election 2011 candidates from all of the major Parties... read more & comment>

We've had a lot of debate over the past month or so on our tv screens, and sometimes it is hard to work out exactly what to watch, causing some people I know to begin to switch off from the election debate itself, so I have come up with a shortlist of some of the most informed, interesting and important debates that have taken place... read more & comment>

Last nights debate will be remembered for both Enda Kenny's no-show, and Micheál Martin's sterling performance. But when the dust settles, and the media start looking through all of Martin's quotes, whilst comparing them to his 14 year history as a minister, some of his words will seem quite hollow... read more & comment>

The latest Sunday Business Post/RED C Poll shows only minor changes yet again. It appears that most Irish voters have made up their minds some time ago, and nothing major is happening in this campaign to change their party affiliation. The undecided voters remain at 20%, which is a remarkable figure, when the election is only around the corner... read more & comment>

SLIDESHOW: Enda Kenny was present at the launch of this so-called national measure of 'trust', whilst he cannot be bothered engaging properly with the public, even with a general election campaign ongoing. Plus, why do the mainstream media peddle this survey as being a balanced measure of public trust, whilst only the elite are surveyed... read more & comment>

What I can gather is that most/all of the parties that replied to me are not actually producing a document which is called a 'Program For Government'. To them it is just an expression to be thrown out there in interviews and debates. What they are all doing, is to release multiple documents, and to drip feed them to us... read more & comment>

Yesterday's polls show just how volatile the support is for all of the political parties right now. It is clear that there is a lot of roving support, which, in my mind, proves that the parties have not made their cases clear enough to the electorate. Plus, there are still over one-fifth of voters who remain undecided, in this information-free zone... read more & comment>

Ivan Yeates and Chris Donoghue are doing a series of interviews, for their excellent Breakfast show on Newstalk.ie, with the main political party leaders, ahead of the general election. In these interviews they put general questions to all of them regarding their respective parties proposed programs for government... read more & comment>

After much speculation, the Fianna Fáil party are not holding us to ransom any more. They have confirmed that the general election will take place on the 25th of this month. There was a feeling out there that they would announce it for March the 4th, but the have opted for the final Friday in February instead... read more & comment>

If this election is all about substance, reform and policy, as all of the political parties are saying it is, then we should be able to get directly to the substance to find out their exact respective proposed program's for government, quite easily. Shouldn't we? I decided to find out exactly how easy this would be, and started by visiting their websites... read more & comment>

Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore, stated today that the public now know that there are just three options for leading government - Labour, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Nobody else matters as far as he is concerned, and judging by his tone of voice, he seems to believe that we should forget that anybody else exists... read more & comment>

Even though Journalist/Author David McWilliams has not put himself forward for election, thankfully, he will play a part in the process, by advising independent candidates on financial matters, for free. Therefore his logic, ideas and experience, may indeed help out his country, in a very big way... read more & comment>

RTE have released both opinion polls which were set to be published tomorrow in the Sunday papers. The Sunday Independent/Millward Brown IMS and Sunday Business Post/RED C polls both show that Micheál Martin's leadership win within the Fianna Fáil party has re-invigorated them slightly... read more & comment>

We have come across this set of results, allegedly from the upcoming Sunday Independent/Millward Brown IMS opinion poll. The paper was to publish them in tomorrow's edition, but these particular set of statistics have been appearing on a handful of websites over the past few hours... read more & comment>

Fianna Fáil - Ireland historically largest party - have elected their new leader. Micheál Martin got the nod ahead of Brian Lenihan Jnr, Mary Hanafin and the dark horse, Éamon Ó Cuív. Martin won the vote on the third count. It sure is fitting to have a failed politician/minister lead Fianna Fáil into this general election... read more & comment>

There will be more new TDs than ever, after the new Dáil is elected, no matter what way things go in the 2011 Irish General Election for those who still stand. So far there have been an incredible amount of withdrawals, a total of 35 out of 166 TDs, and we can expect much more, along with those who will loose their seats in the election itself... read more & comment>

When you look a little closer at the family links in our parliament system, you really get an idea as to how cronyism comes about. One generation makes the links with business and financial interests, and the next generation deepens those links. Added to that, you may have other family members in other important positions in Irish society... read more & comment>

Fianna Fáil will actually get to choose a new leader before the impending election, a move which has been in some doubt for a considerable amount of time. They even know which date that will happen, which is more than can be said for the nation, regarding a date for getting to choose a new government and leadership... read more & comment>

Yesterday evening's tv and radio news programs featured Fianna Fáil, Green Party, Labour, and Fine Gael Fail politicians explaining that they have come up with a program to rush through the Finance Bill, and have therefore highlighted a date that the Dáil can be called, which means that a general election campaign can then begin to take place... read more & comment>

After a long closed meeting held earlier today, the Greens have decided to pull out of government, citing Brian Cowen's underhand attempt at building a new cabinet, as being "the final straw". Green Party TDs and Senators held a televised press conference, which outlined their reasons for withdrawal from the coalition with Fianna Fáil... read more & comment>