Pressure Groups, Power groups, power factors in Ireland?

[nera78]

Hello,

I am a student from Argentina and am doing a paper on the Republic of Ireland. To finish it I need some information on the most important

.power groups
.pressure groups
.tention groups
.power factors

that exist in the Republic of Ireland today.

While browsing the internet I could not find much information on this. Maybe I am not looking in the right places.. I would be very happy if anyone could give me some info or hints, or links so I can do further research.

Thank you very much

Sonia

[FutureTaoiseach]

Hello.

The main political parties are:

Fianna Fail
Fine Gael
Labour
Progressive Democrats
Sinn Fein
Green Party

Fianna Fail and Fine Gael grew out of the original Sinn Fein party that won the last All-Ireland General Election in 1918 when Ireland was still part of the UK. Ireland was partitioned into Northern and Southern Ireland in 1920 under the Government of Ireland Act 1920.

After a war of independence against Britain, 26 of Ireland's 32 counties became independent under the Anglo-Irish Treaty 1921. The Irish state fought a civil war for 1 year (1922-3) because of disagreements over the Treaty e.g. it forced us to accept the British king as our head of state. Sinn Fein broke up into two parties: Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein(against the Treaty) and Cumann na nGaedhael (now Fine Gael which supported the treaty). Ireland removed the British king from its Constitution in 1937 and became a republic in 1948.

Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein later broke up into Fianna Fail, and Sinn Fein.

The current Irish Government is a Coalition government of 2 parties - Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats. The Progressive Democrats are a small free-market liberal party favouring low taxes and privatisation and got 4% of the vote in the 2002 General Election.

The present-day SF is a smaller party which refused to join the new Fianna Fail party that most of the Old Anti-Treaty SF's members joined in 1927. It is believed to be linked to the outlawed Provisional IRA terrorist organisation.

Irish trade-unions are very powerful. Every few years, the Government negotiates a national wage agreement with them whereby in return for pay rises most of the trade-unions agree not to strike. Some unions refuse to take part in the talks though.

The main Irish trade-unions are:

SIPTU (largest union)
IMPACT (Public sector union)
MANDATE (This union refuses to take part in National Wage talks)
ASTI (Secondary Teachers Union)
INTO (Primary teachers union)

etc.

Historically, Fine Gael and Labour usually go into government together. Fianna Fail and Labour went into government together once from 1992-4.

The biggest party is Fianna Fail who won 41% in the 2002 General Election. Fine Gael is next on 22%. Labour won 12%.

Hope this helps.

[joemomma]

The biggest power/pressure group consists of those who can make their way into the Fianna Fáil tent at the Galway Races. This loose association of property developers, builders, publicans and assorted magnates doesn't have a web site, but the Galway Races and Fianna Fáil do.

Beyond that, you've got the "social partners": the employers and the unions. Then there are the professional bodies: doctors, lawyers and the like.

The above are some groups which tend to get their way, one way or another. I suppose you should also factor in the religious types. They apparently have a lot of influence, although they don't appear to be terribly well organised these days.

[nera78]

thanks for the reply. maybe i should have written, that i already have a lot of information on the political parties. what would be more interesting are pressure groups or organizations that are important apart from political parties, even terroist groups or other influential movements.

thanks again

[Pidge]

edit - once again, i said something stupid

[rockofcashel]

thanks for the reply. maybe i should have written, that i already have a lot of information on the political parties. what would be more interesting are pressure groups or organizations that are important apart from political parties, even terroist groups or other influential movements.

thanks again

Pressure groups would be I suppose what you call lobbyists, and some of the more important ones in Ireland would be

CORI - Conference of Religious of Ireland
This is the main social partner representing the Religious (Catholic) institutions. They are influential in the sense that they spend a lot of time lobbying political parties on social issues.

see: www.cori.ie

CIF - Construction Industry Federation

This is the group representing the construction industry in Ireland. It is a very powerful economic lobby group as construction accounts for about 8% of GDP in Ireland. They also spend a lot of time lobbying governement of the infrastructural requirements of the National Development Plan

see: www.cif.ie

IBEC - Irish Business Employers Confederation

This group represents the larger business interests in Ireland, and are one of the representatives of business on the Social Partnership.

see: www.ibec.ie

ICTU - Irish Congress of Trade Unions

This is the Trade Union Council which represents the majority of the Trade Union movement in Social Partnership

see: www.ictu.ie

IFA - Irish Farmers Association

This represents the farming and agricultural interests in Social Partnership.

see: www.ifa.ie


There are some other smaller but powerful lobby groups representing a variety of econonic and social interests. In Ireland, politics can be very parochial and legislators can sometimes tend to pander to very localised lobbyists.

Examples of this are

VFI - Vintners Federation of Ireland (www.vfi.ie)

This is a publicans (bar-owners) lobby group

RGDATA - The Retail, Grocery, Dairy and Allied Trades' Association (www.rgdata.ie)

This represents smaller businesses like sole-trader shopkeepers etc


Others I can think of off hand, are the

IMO - Irish medical association

I'll try to think of more and keep you informed

[magic_norhan]

VFI is for pubs outside the Dublin area

The Licensed Vintners Association http://www.lva.ie/ is for pubs in Dublin, both would have quite strong lobbies

[Catalpa]

Probably the Pressure Group with the most power and influence taking into account their tiny numbers is the self styled

Residents against Racism [SIC]

who are a micro group of PC people totally out of touch with the majority of Irish people on the issue of Immigration.

Their ability to get prime time TV coverage and newspaper articles is truly amazing.

Who actually finances their Operations is a mystery but they are very well organized and obviously have access at the top of the media Establishment.

[rockofcashel]

Probably the Pressure Group with the most power and influence taking into account their tiny numbers is the self styled

Residents against Racism [SIC]

who are a micro group of PC people totally out of touch with the majority of Irish people on the issue of Immigration.

Their ability to get prime time TV coverage and newspaper articles is truly amazing.

Who actually finances their Operations is a mystery but they are very well organized and obviously have access at the top of the media Establishment.

You could throw in the Socialist Party, which also seems to organise a lot of social agitation in Dublin on issues such as service charges. The opposition to such charges outside of this is less well organised.

You could also add in the IRA. This has had a huge influence on Government policy regarding the 6 counties. However, its been on ceasefire since 1997, (since 1994 with a short break, thank you Mr. Bruton). You'd probably have to look at a range of websites dealing with the IRA to get a taste of the effect that the organisation has had on policy in the 26 counties