The taming of the Greens, replacing principle with maturity, has been supported by the media. By Chekov Feeney.
The Greens have traditionally been placed somewhere on a spectrum between a dangerous subversive threat and a harmless joke by the media.
The Standards in Public Office Commission is investigating offences under ethics legislation and recommends a new approach to funding of political parties.
There are 10 independent female candidates running, two People Before Profit Alliance female candidates and one Christian Solidarity Party female candidate.
Sinn Fein currently have no female TDs in the Dail. They are running 10 female general election candidates.
The PDs currently have four TDs in government who are women out of a total of 8. They are running seven female candidates in this election.
Labour are running 11 female candidates out of a total of 50 general election candidates,
Brian Cowen has been ubiquitous during the election campaign. On Questions and Answers before the campaign, on Prime Time repeatedly and on The Week in Politics. Combative, clever, commanding but... There is an aggressiveness about him which is off-putting and which I think may have done damage to his party. That air of contempt for opposing views (occasionally oh-so-consciously repressed), that snarling, bullying, belligerent, demeanour. I know him slightly through El Señor de la Casa (ie the husband), who was at Blackhall Place with him in the 1980s.
The Green Party had no women in the last Dail, they are running 11 female candidates out of 39 in the election.
Fine Gael is running 15 women candidates out of a total of 91 candidates in the general election.
Fianna Fáil is the worst party in terms of the proportion of women they have running. They have 14 female candidates out of a total of 106 candidates.