Politics

Our political masters have returned to work in Leinster House with all the enthusiasm of recalcitrant Leaving Cert st...

We now also facilitate the gross abuse of the human rights of suspects who are abducted and tortured

Following a 13-week break, the Dáil returns to a circus of trivia and posturing, while major issues remain ignored

A heated Dáil debate between Mary Harney and Liz McManus errupted as news broke that the health services' pay-roll system may have to be scrapped

abour's spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Michael D Higgins, has become one of the country's most outspoken advocates of Irish neutrality ever since debate on the issues was ignited by US warplanes stopping to refuel at Shannon Airport. Now, as his party marches forward to the next election seeking a coalition with Fine Gael, it seems that the issue may become one of the key policy differences between the two parties.

As the TDs return to Dáil Eireann, Mary Minihan previews what's going to happen in the season ahead. Most activity will be in the constitutencies, wooing voters in the run-up to the next general election

On 20 March 2003, the Dáil passed a resolution authorising the government to make facilities in Shannon available to US forces pursuing hostilities in Iraq. The terms of the resolution raised questions at the time but even more so now, in the light of information that since has become available.

Barry Andrews, a politician who says what he thinks, from a family with a long political history, talks to Mary Regan about his frustration with his role as a backbencher

The question sometimes arises whether or not there is any true Left in Irish politics. Labour has agreed to enter a pact with the right-wing Fine Gael to get into government; Sinn Féin, the rising alternative Left party, is said to be waiting for an opportunity to go into government with Fianna Fáil; and the Greens would probably go into government with either of them. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, has declared himself to be a socialist at heart. The real Socialist party, which is just seven years old, has one Dáil representative, Joe Higgins.

'The Irish people are a first-class people and they deserve a first-class service,' said Enda
Kenny at the Fine Gael think-in, but his speech was thin on how he'll deliver that service,
while Brendan Drumm and David McWilliams avoided issues of substantive politics.
By Eoin Ó Murchú, Sara Burke and Vincent Browne