The one achievement of Bertie Ahern that stands out is his success in Northern Ireland. It is probably fair to state that only an individual without much in the way of idealogical belief was able to sit on the fence between competing idealogies and bring these competing idealogies to a compromise.

The legacy of Ahern is likely to be his failure to use a profoundly nation-altering economic boom to permanently upgrade the level of basic public services in this country. After almost 11 years as Taoiseach, women in Ireland still have no ready access to a breast checking service in order to diagnose the occurence of cancer. Indeed, when women do undergo an examination to determine the existence of breast cancer, they are misdiagnosed. Waiting lists, have, despite promises, remained long for users of the public health service. Susie Long had to wait seven months for a colonoscopy after the request was made by her GP. That delay resulted in the cancer permeating her bowel and becoming incurable by the time she had the test, how she, a public patient, had sat beside the partner of a private patient with the same disease in a hospital room and heard how he had undergone the colonoscopy within three days of referral, and she was going to die.Women have died because of this.

Dublin has seen an increase in public transport provision - but when the Luas line was being implemented, it was chopped in two, in the interests of political expediency and cowardice. Several years later, this mistake has been realised and will be rectified - at the cost of millions more to the exchequer. Had the Luas system been properly implemented, Dublin would now be building additional Luas lines and Metro lines, and perhaps even have completed some of these - as it is, they are now only being planned, and in the case of the few lines that have been started, they are still in the early stages. In terms of air transport, the national airline has been privatised, sold off to the highest bidder, and Shannon has been stripped of a service vital to the economy of the west of Ireland.

Fundamentally, the construction of houses by the backers of Ahern and Fianna Fail led to skyrocketing inflation in land and house prices, which has been nothing short of a disaster ordinary people, forced to move far away from the areas in which they grow up, forcing them to sit in cars as they commute to jobs located miles away.

Critically for Ireland, and perhaps permanently, Ahern allowed his personal integrity to be compromised. By taking money and not paying taxes he has contributed, along with his late mentor Charles Haughey, to the poisoning of politics. He has made it that much harder for genuine individuals, with real political idealogies to place themselves in a position where they can be elected by citizens who trust and respect political office.
Ahern has not left the office of Taoiseach with dignity. He has left it bruised and battered by allowing it to become tainted by the impropriety of his actions in this regard.

Good riddance to Bertie Ahern. He should have resigned years ago.

I expect Bertie Ahern, a member of the Cabinet in 1994 and as the head Government that represents Ireland to the world, to remember every single detail of every single punt he got from businessmen, innocently or not, so that he can prove, and I can know, whether my Taoiseach (because regardless of my political affiliations, that is what he is) is corrupt or not.

When he wibbles and changes his story more than once, that's one thing. But when he changes it multiple times and claims to have no precise memory of what occurred, that is something else altogether.

Ahern has to go - he has damaged the office of Taoiseach, whether by perception or by misdeed, or by both, that is the fact of Bertiegate.

"Madam, - Your report of Rónán Mullen's Seanad election victory (The Irish Times, July 27th) claimed that Mr Justin Barrett, "a former Youth Defence spokesman", was among our supporters at the count centre. This is not true.

The error is regretted. - Ed, IT."

Labour's Brendan Ryan of Cork lost his seat in the Seanad to Irish Daily Mail columnist Ronan Mullen. Mullen is known to be very right wing in his views, but according to the Irish Times, he seems to have had a known Fascist supporting his campaign. The Irish Times reports that - "At the count his supporters included his parents, sister, nephew, his cousin Michael (a Fine Gael councillor), Prof Binchy and Justin Barrett, a former Youth Defence spokesman."

In 2002, while a spokesperson for the No To Nice campaign, Justin Barrett attended NPD meetings in Germany and Forza Nuova meetings in Italy and when questioned about this said that he didn't know they were racist, anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi/Fascist organisations - but this utterance seems so incredible that he was either naive or lying. As Barrett is known for holding views similar to those of the NPD for Foraza Nuovo, I believe the latter to be the case.

Assuming that the Irish Times is correct in its reporting of the presence of Barrett at Mullen's count, it is interesting to see Mullen nail his colours to the mast so clearly. If Mullen did not invite Barrett to be there, I hope that Barrett was informed he was unwelcome! At any rate, perhaps Mullen will be the new Oliver J Flanagan of the Oireachteas, ranting and raving against the dying of the extreme right-wing light he was so keen on. I hope that is all he will be, and not a rallying call for the small extreme right grouping that exists in this country.

Speakers include Sen. David Norris and Ivana Bacik.

Weblog at http://choiceireland.blogspot.com/

I have always been pro-choice, for two reasons. The first is that the state should not be entitled to interfere with the reproductive rights of any citizen, be they male or female. I feel that as a democrat, the fact that we, as Irish citizens, continue to allow the state to interfere in that most personal of spheres is abhorrent. The second reason I am pro-choice is that I believe that the rights of a pregnant woman take precedence over the unborn. It is her body that will carry the pregnancy to full term. Bringing an baby into the world is a life altering experience - so life-altering that the woman should be entitled to the right to decide, after conception, whether she wants to have that experience or not. When it comes right down to a termination, It is the business of nobody except the woman, not even the man involved - he is not pregnant.

While I would tend to believe that there are moral and psychological consequences to obtaining an abortion, the fact remains that it is for the woman to decide and nobody else. It is her body, her pregnancy and her choice. She should be given all information and then left alone to make an informed decision.

The people decided in 2002 to let the provisions in the Constitution made in the 1990's to remain. This means that abortion is legal when the life of the mother is in danger. However, there is no legislation for this. It is time that there was legislation for it. I call on all the parties in Fáíl Éireann to stop sitting on the fence for reasons of political self-interest and address the issue.

Thousands of Irish women leave this country every year to seek abortions. It is high time we matured as a nation and provided this service ourselves, as opposed to fudging the issue or pretending it (or the women involved) does not exist. This issue does exist and it is time we - as a nation - faced up to this. What is certain is that as long as the current status of abortion in this country remains, it will continue to do so.

If your mother, sister, cousin, aunt or friend became pregnant and reached the decision where she did not want to proceed with the pregnancy, wouldn't you want them to be able to have freedom of choice in their own country, and not have to undergo the additional trauma of having to leave it in order to seek an end to their suffering, if that is what they so chose?

Amongst other things, democracy means freedom of choice when it comes to the privacy of our own bodies, whether we like the choices or not. The fact that women are denied full rights relating to all aspects of their reproductive systems is nothing short of scandalous. It's her body, her reproductive process, and nobody but her has the right to make that sort of a decision. It's called freedom of choice, one of the wonders of democratic government. Do we or do we not live in a democracy?

Does Ireland wish to see Dick Roche, builder of the M3 and the would-be desecrator of our ancient monuments back in office?

Does Ireland wish to see Martin Cullen, the waster of millions on a flawed electronic voting system back in office?

Does Ireland really need Michael Martin back in, he who sat back in Department of Health meetings and cheerfully ignored the nursing home crisis?

Is it in the best interests if Ireland to see Mary Hanafin back in office, she who has denied adequate services and ABA therapy to autistic children?

Is it in the best interests of Ireland to have to admit that the Taoiseach takes cash from his friends and pays no tax until he's caught out?

Is it in the best interests of Ireland to have a government that guaranteed the Health Boards staff their jobs, then hired HSE bureacrats on top of them, THEN officially gave up on the notion of a public health service by calling in their friends in the construction industry to build private hospitals?

Does Ireland REALLY need Michael McDowell back in office, passing draconian legislation which horrifies criminal lawyers, alienates immigrants and allows the rapists of children to walk free because he wasn't pay attention to the side effects of what he legislated for?

Do you really want the wealthy supporters of Fianna Fáil and the PDs shrieking with delight on Friday when they realise their best friends are back in power? Friends such as Anthony O'Reilly of Independent News & Media?

If you believe Ireland does not need and should not have such a government in office, then you have to vote Labour first and Fine Gael second tomorrow.

Michael McDowell really did reveal his true colours in the end. After threatening to pull out of the Government in 2006, he criticised the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for accepting money from businessmen in 1993 and 1994 and called it "unethical" and "an error of judgement" and said that the money must be "repaid with interest". This statement was derided by the Opposition who correctly saw it as the determination of Michael McDowell deciding to keep Fianna Fáíl in power, in order that he himself could remain in power in his recently accquired role of Táinaiste.

As if this wasn't damaging enough for the PD's, a similar event occured in the early stages of this election. Yet again, we saw recent history repeat itself in the early days of the 2007 General Election campaign. When the Bertie gate scandal rear its head yet again, Michael McDowell once more threatened to pull out of Government. Yet again, he changed his mind after deciding that it would be better to keep Fianna Fáil in power and himself in power as Tánaiste.

For an individual who practically won his seat in the 2002 General Election by climbing a lamp-post to hang a poster reading "Single Party Government? NO Thanks!" written on it, McDowell has walked all over that statement. He has chosen twice within six months to keep Fianna Fáil in power despite glaring indications that there are still ethical problems within Fianna Fáil.

It is my view that on May 27th, the people of Ireland will tell Michael McDowell and his party, the Progressive Democrats that such behaviour is inexcusable - if one seat is retained by the party, Michael McDowell should be happy. If two seats are retained by the party, Michael McDowell should be profoundly greatful.

It's now four months further on, into an election year and as we know, McDowell made the choice to support Bertie Ahern, after some deliberation. In the 2002 election, McDowell made a fuss out of climbing a lamp-post in his constituency, with his eye catching poster which read "Single party government? No thanks". In my post September, I wondered how the public would react to the PD's supporting Fianna Fáíl when the larger partywas facing into their biggest crisis of their second term in Government, after they - the now PD leader in particular - making their point that a single party government was something undesirable, and the nation would be better off with the PD's watching Fianna Fáil. Amazingly enough, the Government parties experienced a surge in the polls, when they should have taken a hit on account of the facts of the issue of the payments.

So it looks like the PD leader chose well, and has put the alternative coalition of Fine Gael and Labour behind in the polls, which they currently seem to be struggling to deal with. It remains to be seen as to how it will all play out. There is probably four months to go in this election, and it's not over yet.

I hope to be able to cover some of the events over the coming months on this weblog, if college doesn't get in the way! Happy New Year!

The leader of the Progressive Democrats has to consider a few options -

If the PD leader Michael McDowell were to insist Bertie resigns, that will result in either the PD's being told that is not an option, which might force them to walk out of Government. Fianna Fáil would then govern with the support of Independent deputies - Jackie Healy Rae, Mildred Fox, soon-to-be Fianna Fáil member Niall Blaney, and the few other Independent deputies that would be of the Fianna Fáil gene-pool. In this case, the Progressive Democrats would be out in the wilderness, and would possibly face political oblivion for trying to force the issue in the first place.

Alternatively, McDowell could insist that Ahern has to go, and this could be accepted, in which case there would be a new Taoiseach, most likely Brian Cowen. This throws up the unknown quantity of Michael McDowell working with someone on record as not being a fan of the PD's - remember when he said "If in doubt, leave them out"?

What if McDowell decides to support Bertie? Remember his lamp-post climbing antics in the final days of the 2002 Election? "Single party government? No thanks", was his mantra. How will the public react if the PD's, in the face of their coalition partner facing into their biggest crisis of this Government, support them, when in 2002 a fuss was made by McDowell about Fianna Fáil needing a watchdog?

If Mary Harney did get wind of something bad in the offing, she made a shrewd judgement in deciding it was not going to be something she wished to deal with as leader. Perhaps she thought that as Michael McDowell was so keen on being PD leader, he could deal with it himself? All idle speculation, of course, but I can't help but wonder.

Simon at Irish Election has done some initial work in assessing who these people are. One of them, it would seem, is Joe Burke, who has experience in controversy. A former Fianna Fáil councillor, he was appointed as chairman of the Dublin Port Company in 2002. Burke's appointment was among a number of postings to State bodies announced the day after the calling of the 2002 General Election, which led to allegations of cronyism from Fine Gael and Labour. Apparently, Mr Burke had requested a place on the board of Dublin Port from the Taoiseach and that the partners in Government, the Progressive Democrats had not been consulted in advance about his appointment. The then Tánaiste, Mary Harney, was only notified after the appointment was made.

As if that wasn't bad enough, it gets worse. Mr Burke became embroiled in the Sheedy controversy in 1999. This episode caused a huge scandal at the time when it emerged that, as the employer of the jailed architect Philip Sheedy, he visited him in prison at Shelton Abbey after his conviction and sentencing for dangerous driving causing the death of Mrs Anne Ryan. At the time, Mr Ahern told the Dáil that Mr Burke had made representations to him about securing Mr Sheedy’s early release. He described the former councillor as a “good personal friend… When I meet him we usually talk about sport, sometimes about building and politics”.

So, there it is.

Fianna Fáil have been slumping in the polls for most - if not all - of the year and I would imagine it's probably not going to get any better for them. If this Joe Burke is the same Joe Burke above, and the whole thing gets worse, Bertie might simply walk into the Dáil tomorrow, the first day of the final session of this, the 29th Dáil, and call a snap election - a sure fire way to kill this disgraceful scandal off, because for all political parties, the energy involved in running a General Election campaign, would be all-consuming.

It remains to be seen what will happen.

Obviously, it is early days in terms of knowing who the new leader and Tánaiste will be, but the only real candidates would seem to be Michael McDowell and Liz O'Donnell.

Liz O'Donnell has not served in a government in a long time - since before the last election, and then only as a junior minister. She has less experience than McDowell. She is, however, Harney's chosen successor - they are very close. She is not close to Bertie Ahern however, given the spat last November in the aftermath of the Ferns Report dealing with the abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy, where she passed remarks indicating her dislike of Government (meaning Bertie Ahern) being "close to All Hallows". This did not go down well with Ahern and it would be my opinion that any working relationship between the two would be strained.

As for Michael McDowell...well, we all know McDowell. If he does become the leader of the PD's and the Tánaiste as well, I'd think they were in for real trouble coming towards the General Election. Beyond the confines of a zealous right-wing minority of the middle classes, he is universally despised.

Non-intellectuals despise him for what he is - an intellectual and upper-class. A lot of intellectuals despise him for his populist pandering. He is despised by the pro-immigrant lobby for the citizenship referendum and his anti-immigrant line. Despised by Irish conservatives for being a social liberal, he is equally despised by social liberals for his repeatedly authoritarian laws and approach.

It is a very interesting time in Irish politics, the most interesting in at least 15 years. The General Election is shaping up to be a hell of a fight, but this change of leadership adds greatly to it. Sit tight, we're in for a great election campaign.

It turns out that Meteor is sponsoring the visit of Jeb Bush to speak at the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland on July 21st. According to the spiel on the website, “a key focus of the Governor's visit to Ireland & the UK in July is the development of the life science's sector in Florida”.

As Jeb Bush is one of the most enthusiastic executing governors in the United States, the use of the term "life sciences" is more than a bit ironic.

Bush talks about deterrence in his article. However, most death penalty proponents concede that executions do NOT deter others from committing murder. In fact, studies show that the murder rate increases slightly after a highly publicized execution. States without the death penalty consistently have lower murder rates - as do countries throughout the world that have abolished the death penalty. Even with recent highly publicized executions, the latest FBI statistics show violent crime on the rise once again. In fact, many murders are not planned, and those who do plan to murder do not plan to be caught.

My colleague spoke with the Media and PR manager of Meteor this morning and she claims that Meteor did not know who the guest speaker at the lunch would be, which I find hard to believe. It's unlikely that a corporate entity such as Meteor - which has Eircom as a parent company - would commit financial backing without knowledge of the event details. The Meteor representative also claimed that the guest speakers of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland have not yet been confirmed, again this is incorrect, if you look at the website, Bertie Ahern is speaking on Sept. 23rd and Brian Cowen is confirmed for Nov.23rd. The office of Philip Nolan, the CEO of Eircom, was also contacted, where a representative (Philip Nolan was apparently unavailable) - claimed that Eircom has no control over Meteor, a claim which, to me, seems preposterous.

For those who can make it, there is a protest at the Conrad Hotel at 12 Noon this Friday, July 21st, Deputy Lord Mayor, Aodhan O’Riordan will be speaking at it. For those who can’t attend the protest, how about advising people using Meteor to switch network and ask everybody on Meteor to send a text - e.g. using Meteor's free Meteor-to-Meteor text offer - to protest at Meteor's sponsorship of this event. Timing could be important here, so texting should take place at a fixed date and time, namely 12 Noon on Friday - if the message could be spread to many Meteor customers, it might bring the network down for a while.

The Labour Party is the only party with an active LGBT wing that campaigns. Other parties have LGBT wings, but less is seen of them than the Labour one, at least in my experience. This year, the Labour LGBT hired an open topped bus and decked it out with banners. At the Pride Parade last weekend Rabbitte and a fairly decent number of the Parliamentary Party turned up to support them.

And yet Labour still get flack, some of which seems to be due to comments made by Liz McManus where she said that she didn't support gay marriage. I was there when she said this, and I got the distinct impression that she said it because she was wary of firstly a backlash from conservative elements of the electorate, and secondly because of the risk of any bills containing progressive legislation for same-sex couples actually failing to be passed in the Oireachteas (where a conservative Government has the majority!), but that she did support the Civil Partnership Bill being drafted by David Norris (and assisted by a prominent member of Labour, Ivana Bacik). It's worth noting at this point that Senator Norris watered down his Civil Partnership Bill because he knew that anything more progressive than that would not get through.

While I see where Liz McManus is coming from, I don't agree with her - I think she's incorrect in her assesment, and even if she was to be proven correct, I'd like to see Labour go all out and push for same-sex marriage, not just civil partnership - which, by the way, is still a damn sight more than the other major parties are pushing for.

But what really bugs me about this issue is that people give out about Labour, but never, it seems about any of the other political parties in relation to LGBT rights. Why don't people ask why Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael didn't have LGBT wings at the Pride Parade, not to mention policies in the area? What about Sinn Féin? Or the Greens? Where were the LGBT wings of those two gay friendly parties? Why don't people give out to David Norris for watering down the partnership he drafted? And why don't people give out to Bertie Ahern for paying lip service when he paid a visit to GLEN earlier in the year? His words sounded nice, and he got a bit of kudos for saying it, but what else is he doing on the issue?

As a big fan of hers, I was sorry to read in the Sunday Business Post last week that Ivana Bacik has announced her decision not to run in the next General Election. Rumoured to have been preparing to run in Dun Laoghaire, I suppose she feels that she only has an outside chance of winning a seat there, as it is a tightly contested constituency.

She is however, running again for the Seanad next year on the Trinity (University of Dublin) panel, so when the time comes, I shall be haranguing all my TCD graduate friends to vote if they have the vote, and if not, to find those who do and get them to vote for her!

In other news, I see Socialist Party leader, Joe Higgins has been getting under the skin of our Dear Leader again, by making some insightful comments about the longstanding ties between Fianna Fáil and the construction and property development industry. Bertie, of course, lost the plot. Not content with referring to him as a failed person (and a nitwit, I believe!), with failed policies. He finished his tirade by telling his Comrade in Socialism to "Go away".

This is pathetic. The Dáil is a place of debate. Telling a parliamentary colleague to "go away" belittles the deputy saying it, and the Dáil itself.

Finally, It seems the PD's are in trouble, with Michael McDowell making threats to leave, and Mary Harney making threats to sack him over a leadership contest. But of course, in the last couple of days they've been making a desperate attempt to display a unified front. To this end, there was a photo of them published in the Evening Herald yesterday. Taken at a photocall to show how matey Mary N' Mick are, the photo shows them kissing. On the mouth. I don't think any tongues were involved, though, but that does not make the photograph any less revolting. I'm not sure about this, but I doubt the few readers I have want to see a balding, blond right-winger engaged in a clinch with his party leader.

Despite the fawning eulogies and tributes, Charles J. Haughey is, in my view, the individual to have had the most negative political influence on Irish politics since Independence. His only political acts that were of pure benefit to Irish society were done early in his career, while he was Minister for Justice. The Succession Act of 1965 ensured protection of the inheritance rights of wives and children, while the Extradition Act of that same year and the reactivation of the Special Criminal Court clamped down on IRA activity. But what else did he do that was done purely for the positive benefit of Irish society and not for his own personal gratification also?

As a well-known lover of the arts, it could be argued that he did good things for the arts in Ireland, not because he felt it would benefit others, but because it was something he himself wanted, so that he himself could appreciate art better, and satisfy his ego at the same time. When viewed in this light, it is merely a happy coincidence that his promotion of the Irish arts had a positive effect on the rest of us.

The provision of free public transport for old age pensioners, while heralded as a radical thing, was and is a breadcrumb, a sop to the electorate of the 1960's, in order to catch their imagination. If Haughey had really been radical, it would have been free healthcare for old age pensioners - that really would have been radical then, and most certainly now. The aged in Ireland deserved then, and deserve now, so much more than to ride for free on public transport.

In 1978 the Health (Family Planning) Bill was introduced by Haughey. This bill limited the provision of contraceptives to bona fide "family planning or for adequate medical reasons", however the most controversial part of the bill was that contraceptives could only be dispensed by a pharmacist on the presentation of a valid medical prescription. If Haughey was really radical, that Bill would have allowed contraceptives to be available without prescription of any kind, defying conservative elements in Irish society, as was done seven years later, while Haughey and Fianna Fáíl were in opposition.

Politics should be seen as a noble profession. For an individual to dedicate their time, their energy and make sacrifices of their personal life to their local area or electoral constituency, to serve in the Dáil or a government - all these are noble acts. But Charles J. Haughey is largely responsible for those acts to be seen as negative acts. To put it simply, he made politics appear ignoble.

Haughey was a bully. Accounts of intimidation while he was leader of Fianna Fál are many. He took money from wealthy businessmen. He supposedly took money from an account to help pay the medical bills of a political colleague and ally of long standing. When appearing before tribunals, he perjured himself under oath. And as a result, and the most harmful of all the things he did, he destroyed the trust that people placed in political institutions and politicians. The country is less well run because of him, because fewer people vote today than they did 10 or 20 years ago, which ensures that the political opionions of the electorate are not as accurate and known to our political servants as they should be, thereby ensuring that their opinions are not fully taken into account in the development of governmental programmes. Most people under the age of 30 simply do not care about politics, because, as I have heard time and time again "politicians are all the same, all on the take".

And for that, I cannot forgive Charles J. Haughey.