We had a great Selection Convention in The Mansion House for the Pembroke-Rathmines and the South East Inner City wards.  The Selection Conventions were chaired by well known blogging politician, Dominic Hannigan, and hosted by the Dublin South East Labour Party.  Kevin Humphreys and Maria Parodi were selected for the South East Inner City – [...]

I was on The Week in Politics last night, in a brief segment on FÁS (in my capacity as a former board member).  I am concerned that any review of FAS, which in general I welcome, must not be used as an excuse to close down Community Employment (CE) schemes across the country that are [...]

The President of the Irish Planning Institute should get some facts rights before taking cheap shots at elected Councillors according to the former Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councillor Dermot Lacey.

In my experience it has been Councillors and not the planners who have defended good quality planning and the City Development Plan.

So, before President [...]

With the soon to be ending life of the PDs, it is worth looking at their record here in Dublin South East. Clearly the towering personality, here, as in many ways the Party itself, was Michael McDowell. As a local TD I always found Michael courteous and helpful and, while not sharing his politics, I [...]

Dermot has an article featured in today’s Local Authority Times (published by the Institute of Public Administration) arguing in favour of a fully-empowered directly elected Lord Mayor for Dublin.
You can read the article here (pdf).

Today’s Irish Times continues their coverage of the An Bord Pleanála hearing into Seán Dunne’s proposals for his site in Ballsbridge.  They cover Dermot’s contribution to the hearing as their leader on the subject:
THE PRICE paid for land cannot be allowed to become the “yardstick” by which planning decisions are made, Labour city councillor Dermot [...]

Sean Dunne’s plans for the former Berkeley Court and Jury’s site have been described as bold and imaginative – and indeed they are. Perhaps perfectly designed for a nice new site – in Dubai.
However Ballsbridge is not Dubai nor was it recommended for high rise development in the independent study commissioned on this issue by [...]

Last Sunday, Newstalk broadcast an extremely interesting programme on the history of the Labour Party as part of its Talking History series.
Well worth listening to for anyone interested in Irish history or political history.
You can download it directly as an MP3 (28MB) from the Newstalk website.
Update:
You can also listen to it here by clicking ‘play’ [...]

I asked a question at the Dublin City Council meeting last night to try to get to the bottom of the ridiculous delay in extending the tenant purchase scheme (which allows tenants of Dublin City Council to buy their homes) to include flats as well as houses.
Unfortunately, the response makes it clear that the Department [...]