Dara Turnbull

Title: "Ní Shionnáin served her sentence - surely she is allowed to rebuild her life?" I want to clarify something – is it the view of the Taoiseach, and of commentators, that former prisoners should be denied opportunities to rebuild their lives away from violence or criminality, even after they have served their sentence? Given her qualifications, Ursula Ní Shionnáin was perfectly suited for the role of administrative support for a TD working on the Oireachtas Committee for the Irish language, and Catherine Connolly was in the right to give her a chance. I think it is much more concerning if our Government thinks that prisoners such as Ní Shionnáin should not be given the opportunity to rehabilitate when they demonstrate a willingness to do so. As a former employee of the Irish Prison Service, that seems to go against everything that I was told during my training. Tomás M Creamer, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim Published 4th October, 2025, on the letter section of the Irish Indepedent.

My earlier tweet about Catherine Connolly hiring a former prisoner, in the form of a letter to the Indo.

m.independent.ie/opinion/lett...

Is it not too late for him to actually take his name off the ballot? Will FF supporters not still be able to vote for him, even if he has nominally withdrawn?

Is the EU also going to place 15% on US goods, or will it be taking reciprocal measures? Or is the EU effectively just accepting a tarif on it's goods to avoid a larger fight?

EU prepares legal action against Germany over ECB court ruling Commission plans to strike back in battle over legal supremacy.

"untouched by chaos"? What about that time it effectively overruled a judgement of an EU court?

2/2: ...in fact the data prove that Irish people actually have a below average standard of living, in no small part due to them being effectively neglected by the state. Ireland is a low tax, low public investment country and it is not serving its people well in terms of living standards!

1/2: I have been working in Belgium since 2019. Both my nominal gross & net monthly salary are lower now than what they were when I worked in Ireland. HOWEVER, I feel much better off. Why? Because they state spends a lot on my behalf (especially healthcare), and I have a much lower cost of living...

He tweeted a picture of Mary Lou waving at an event, around 5 years ago. Out of context (and if you had problems with your vision) it could look like she was giving a straight arm salute. Poor old Alan then claimed that that is exactly what was happening, and that SF was a nazi party 🤷

Try in vain to bridge existing viability gaps, precipitating a need for an increased volume of HAP, and setting itself up for a recurring path dependent current account obligation

Ireland faces a choice between immediate action or significant costs in the years ahead.

Our report in collaboration with the Climate Change Advisory Council estimates potential costs. These could be reduced by more than half if actions are followed through on now.

#Ireland 🇮🇪 is once again the worst performer in the EU when it comes to use of renewables in heating and cooling. This news comes in the same week as the @fiscalcouncil.bsky.social warned that the state could face up to €26.4 billion in costs related to missing various climate targets. I despair.

Something weird going on with 🇮🇪 house prices. Observable transactions outside Dublin align perfectly with hedonic regressions. But in Dublin, the average price of what is actually sold is way off the hedonic price. Perhaps smaller, less expensive properties are simply not coming to market?

Very interesting exchange with Google's Gemini AI. It is happy to help me with assistance in French, but not in Arabic. It claims not to have the ability to even tell me how to say 'hello' in Arabic, due to vague 'cultural nuances' and an apparent desire not to give me incorrect information. WTF?

One thing I have noticed is how well PBP/Solidarity candidates have been transferring to SD. In a number of constituencies where SD are in the hunt, big transfers from them have been a big reason.

I think it would take an unbelievable vote management from FG for Holly to not get elected, especially since O'Sullivan will still be there to eat up a chunk of Lombard votes. Would expect Holly to pad her lead in the next few rounds of eliminations (i.e., PBP, Lab, SF)

When the funny reply to your funny post is significantly more funny than your funny post.

So, Eoin Ó Broin has only transferred 110 votes of his surplus to Eoin Ó Broin. Poor vote management there from The Eoin Ó Broin Party in #DMW
#GE24 #GE2024

I haven't been on the other place even once today. The surge in popularity of Bluesky could not have come at a better time for Irish political nerds like myself
#GE24 #Tally

L’Irlande, riche comme la Suisse mais pauvre en infrastructures La nation au trèfle affiche l’un des PIB par habitant les plus élevés et 25 milliards d’euros d’excédent budgétaire. Pourtant, en matière de logement ou de transport, la pénurie pèse sur la population...

The write-up on Ireland's election today in Le Monde hits the nail on the head. It is a country that is very rich on paper, but is in reality impoverished when it comes to the quality of infrastructure and the scale of public investment.
#GE24 #Ireland

Well now.

The European Federation of Public, Cooperative, and Social Housing @housingeurope.bsky.social is now on Bluesky. Follow for frequent EU housing updates.

Israeli PM Netanyahu and ex-Defence Minister Gallant face ICC arrest warrants for "war crimes committed from at least 8 Oct 2023 until at least 20 May 2024.” aje.io/mse8rr

Sorcha Edwards: 🆕 EESC report rightly shows that public, cooperative & social housing is a point of reference. Dutch
#socialhousing has already invested EUR10 billion but they also must be supported by economic rules at different levels & we must build these entities where they do not exist.

As I used to say to people when I worked in financial markets, "If I could predict the future I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you". Keep up.tje good work 👌

A lot of data nerds looking at the US election were saying that polling is not supposed to predict final result, as it cannot say how undecided voters etc. will break on election day. How do models like yours account for these cohorts? Perhaps it doesn't apply in PR-STV?

You would be surprised how many of the presentations I give get derailed by semantics 😑 English is increasingly a common language used in the EU to discuss policies and terms for which there seems to be no common understanding or conceptualisation.

Just to clarify, by "rental homes" you are only talking about PRS, not PRS + social/affordable?

Yeah, I also see it as black.

Could you consider an open source Google Doc or similar, where you put all the parties housing manifestos in some comparable (tabular?) format? Perhaps it is already in the works?

Will people who want to avoid 'accidentally' supporting the far-right avoid transferring to independents? Will people who do want to support the fash transfer to non-FR independents by mistake? Both seem very possible, it's just a question of which dynamic is more consequential #GE24

Ireland hasn’t had a single party win a majority since the 70s, but for the first time ever it’s not even theoretically possible as no party is running enough candidates in #GE24 to get a majority even if they won every race.