Séighin Ó Ceallaigh

  By the time you are reading this, it is likely that California Governor Gavin Newsom will either have survived a recall election, or will have been removed as Governor. But the timing of the election, the same day as Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney faces what is almost certain to be an unsuccessful motion of no confidence, and it begs the question, ‘Should Ireland have a recall process?’ For those unaware of the process, following incompetence or scandal (Governor Newsom was caught breaking his own COVID rules, sound familiar?), the minimum of 12% of the California electorate signed a petition to hold a recall election, which is composed of two parts. Firstly will Newsom stay or go, which requires 50% approval (he was elected with 62% of the vote), and if the electorate choose for him to go, then Part II of the ballot will come into effect, who will replace him? A motion of no confidence usually requires the government of the day to turn against one of their ow...

Former Taoiseach, and current Tánaiste and leader of Fine Gael, Leo Varadkar, was spotted this weekend attending a festival in England, all while such festivals in Ireland are outlawed under the Martin-Varadkar administration. It is a serious case of 'do as I say, not as I do', as while the Tánaiste was taking a break (which he is entitled to), Electric Picnic was forbidden from going ahead here in Ireland. Like a teenager seeing how far they can push their parent's boundaries, Leo for some time has been seeing how far he can push his luck with the electorate, and an inept Fianna Fáil. We had #LeoTheLeak, which led to a criminal investigation, #LeoTheLiar when the changing version of his recollection of events appeared to be changing by the day, and most recently #Merriongate, where he attended a large gathering with still unknown characters from the Irish political circles. Now he is pushing those boundaries again, and will likely face no consequences for his d...

This week Fianna Fáil Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien launched the Government's new housing strategy, entitled 'Housing For All'. Though the name is quite deceiving, as it does not in fact plan for 'Housing For All'. In what feels like the 1,237th housing document released since Fine Gael took office in 2011, and ten years later are still in power, it once again lacks ambition, and puts more focus on subsidising landlords and investment funds, rather than deliver family homes. It seems like just yesterday that former Housing Minsters Jan O'Sullivan, Alan Kelly, and Eoghan Murphy, were massaging figures to give the illusion that homes were being delivered, when in fact landlords were given an incentive to drive up rents through schemes such as the Housing Assistance Payment, HAP. This scheme was used to divert the figures of people awaiting public homes, making it appear that there were less people in need of permanent housing than there actually...