The date has been set – on March 11th we shall, as a country, drag our collective bottoms to the polling booth and vote in our General Election. Here’s the Twitter reaction so far.
Ireland is receiving the world’s attention this afternoon after An Taoiseach announced that a General Election will be held in March. Cowen’s has confirmed that there will be no cabinet re-shuffle and said “It is my intention in due course to seek a dissolution of Dail Eireann with a view to a General Election taking place on Friday, March 11.’
Labour Party leader Eamonn Gilmore stook the boot in following Cowen’s announcement, stating “It’s quite clear that the Taoiseach has lost his authority. It was evident that he wanted to appoint new ministers, pull essentially what was a political stroke in doing that. He hasn’t succeeded in doing that and I think he has clearly lost authority as a result of that.”
In the Twittersphere, reaction has also been fairly damning:
@KenEarlys – cowen beats reynolds by 1 day & rests easy mar 12th knowing he wasn’t the worst-ever FF taoiseach. cos that’s how they measure these things.
@ObrienBarry – Brian Cowen is harder than MRSA to get rid of #ffheave
@BigAjm – ‘How now, Brian Cowen?’ Fianna #Fail
@KeyboardCouch – A March election. That’s ridiculous. 6 ministers have resigned. What would it have taken for a February election. #ge11
@Tomraftery – It took the resignation of 5 ministers & withdrawal of support from coalition Green party before Brian Cowen conceded need for election
@MikeJayM – Is there some sort of transfer window we can use for us to choose a foreign Taoiseach? Like Gandhi, he gets my vote. #dail
@DeclanHarmon – Well today has been a demeaning disaster for the Taoiseach, his office and Irish politics. At least we have a date now. Game on.
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