Ireland General Discussion

[Tender Branson]

The Government has published the white paper on the EU Reform Treaty.
It emerged yesterday that 12 June is the likely date for the referendum.

Are the Irish polls still indicating a 2:1 vote in favor of the treaty ?

Our parliament will ratify it next Tuesday.

[Tender Branson]

The Government has published the white paper on the EU Reform Treaty.
It emerged yesterday that 12 June is the likely date for the referendum.

Are the Irish polls still indicating a 2:1 vote in favor of the treaty ?

AFAIK, there hasn't been a poll on it since in over 4 weeks, when it was, as you describe, about 2-1 in favour - but with high numbers of undecideds (30-35%, IIRC).

Interesting: 2 new polls by Gallup and OGM show that 2/3 of Austrians want a referendum on the Treaty. If a referendum was held, 60% would vote against the Treaty.

Nonetheless, the EU is seen very polarized these days: 44% say the Union "is a good thing", 47% disagree.

But just 29% are in favor of a EU-withdrawal, 61% want to stay in.

[Tender Branson]

What are the parties positions on the issue ?

[Tender Branson]

I'm trying to find a copy of the judgment.

Press release:

http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int////tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?action=open&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649&key=87297&sessionId=63614913&skin=hudoc-pr-en&attachment=true

and here (judgement):

http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?action=html&documentId=878721&portal=hbkm&source=externalbydocnumber&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649

[Tender Branson]

This is the case of applicant number 3, where the Court ruled unanimously in favor:

C.  The third applicant (C)

22.  On 3 March 2005 the third applicant had an abortion in England believing that she could not establish her right to an abortion in Ireland. She was in her first trimester of pregnancy at the time.

23.  Prior to that, she had been treated for 3 years with chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer. She had asked her doctor before the treatment about the implications of her illness as regards her desire to have children and was advised that it was not possible to predict the effect of pregnancy on her cancer and that, if she did become pregnant, it would be dangerous for the foetus if she were to have chemotherapy during the first trimester.

24.  The cancer went into remission and the applicant unintentionally became pregnant. She was unaware of this fact when she underwent a series of tests for cancer, contraindicated during pregnancy. When she discovered she was pregnant, the first applicant consulted her General Practitioner (“GP”) as well as several medical consultants. She alleged that, as a result of the chilling effect of the Irish legal framework, she received insufficient information as to the impact of the pregnancy on her health and life and of her prior tests for cancer on the foetus.

25.  She therefore researched the risks on the internet. Given the uncertainty about the risks involved, the third applicant travelled to England for an abortion. She maintained that she wanted a medical abortion (drugs to induce a miscarriage) as her pregnancy was at an early stage but that she could not find a clinic which would provide this treatment as she was a non-resident and because of the need for follow-up. She therefore alleged she had to wait a further 8 weeks until a surgical abortion was possible.

26.  On returning to Ireland after the abortion, the third applicant suffered complications of an incomplete abortion, including prolonged bleeding and infection. She alleges that doctors provided inadequate medical care. She consulted her own GP several months after the abortion and her GP made no reference to the fact that she was visibly no longer pregnant.

[Tender Branson]

The preliminary results of the Irish Census from April are now out. The population is now registered at 4,581,269 (up from 4,239,848 in 2006) - a 150 year high.

The release includes data (and maps) concerning population changes (both natural and migratory), sex ratios, the housing stock (including data on the sizable vacant housing stock).

The release presents the data that will underpin the Constituency Commission's work for the drafting of new proposed constituency boundaries at national and European level that has to be completed within 3 months of the release of the finalised data (which wil happen next April).

The Programme for Government commits to a reduction in the number of TDs. Under these figures, and noting the Constitutional limit that there must be no fewer than 1 TD per 30,000 people (and no more than 1 per 20,000), the lower limit for TDs would be 152 - a reduction of 14 (FG had been suggesting they'd like at least a reduction of 20). Hopefully I'll be able to get round to looking at possible constituency redrawings at some point.

It also means that the CSO has underestimated Ireland's population by about 100.000 people for this year. Probably the emigration was not as high as originally thought and the annual growth rate of 1.8% is still one of the highest in Europe, if not the highest one.

[Tender Branson]

Gay Indian Prime Minister.

A lot has changed in arch-conservative, Catholic Ireland ...