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Just after he called the election, Bertie Ahern mocked the pedigree of the alternative government - they'd be a mixed breed of blue, green, red, he said. Even allowing for Mr Ahern's notoriously bad memory, it is funny he cannot remember that, as well as the PDs, his 1997 government depended on a pack of independents whose agenda was as widely scattered as the constituencies from which they came. One wanted to fill pot holes in Kerry, and another to stop MMDS in Donegal! The FF party whip had to meet this little rump once a week to throw them a bone.

It comes as little surprise to many, as a result of the mechanical soil-stripping in advance of motorway construction, that yet more archaeological monuments have come to light in the Gabhra (Tara-Skryne) Valley, among which is the extensive archaeological complex at Lismullin. Central to this complex is the large hengiform enclosure, the sole monument along the entire M3 corridor that the National Roads Authority (in consultation with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government) has felt compelled to declare a National Monument.

The long-running Tara/M3 controversy underlines how greedy and selfish we Irish have become since the advent of economic good fortune. A landscape that embodies the very soul of Ireland is about to be decimated.

Stop Climate Chaos*, a unique coalition of Irish development, environment and youth agencies, has welcomed the publication today of Irish Aid's Environment Policy for Sustainable Development, but highlighted the need for much greater coherence between Irish Aid's environment policy and the policies of other government departments.

When Bertie Ahern addresses the joint session of the British Parliament on 15th May in some sort of closing ceremony on the political career of Tony Blair, it will not mean a lasting peace in Ireland, the vice-president of Republican Sinn Fein warned today.

Even if it obscures the debate on policy, the question of Bertie Ahern's finances is critical for our democracy.  The reason is fairly simple :
the cost of corruption is enormous.  We know that nods and winks and bags of cash infected the core of our political culture and we know how chunks of our cities are disfigured as a result.  We know how terrible decisions were taken that favoured old friends over the public good.  

It's a scar on our democracy that can only be healed by a vigorous commitment to transparency and accountability.

As an exercise in representative government the current General Election campaign is a shambles.  Instead of a debate about the future direction of government we have the second round of a controversy that should never have had a first round.  If Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had any questions to answer about his personal financial arrangements fifteen years ago, the place for him to do so was and is before the Mahon Tribunal.  Instead we have a distracting witchhunt against a politician with a long, well regarded record of service to the state.

I'm 27 and would like to vote in my home constituency of Noth Tipp. Unfortunately its with disgust, dissappointment, anger that I write to tell you that I've just been informed that my application for a postal vote has been rejected. With the election date announced on Sunday 29th of April, I searched for a method of getting my postal vote. I got my application in the post by Tuesday evening. Not a slow turnaround by any standards given busy work commitments, etc.

So Bertie is ashamed of Ireland for using the peann luaidhe. He wants us to switch to the electronic voting machines that his government wasted so much of the taxpayers' money on. Then he will be able to hold his head high in his meetings with other world leaders.

Before anyone starts jumping for joy with the news that Fine Gaél's poll ratings are up at the expense of Fianna Fáil, even if they do get into power, it'll be a case of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.  Nothing will really change; you might have a change of style, but not substance.