Broadband for those who can’t get it: National broadband contract to be awarded mid-2008. How long will it then take to be rolled out?

In July 2000, the Government approved the development of a metro system for Dublin. Particular priority will be given to the development of an early link to Dublin Airport - Fianna Fail manifesto 2002

Heads of Bill (i.e. only an outline) for civil partnership are due in March 2008. Moving from civil unions (same as marriage but same-sex and different name) to civil partnerships means that the complexity increases exponentially. I’d make a wild guess that the bill won’t be passed until 2010 or later. Just ask yourself:
Can brothers/friends/partners in a civil partnership get married?

They will have to examine (and have consultations) on every co-habitation arragement and come up with specific rules for many complex areas of family law, inheritance law, social welfare entitlements etc. Consider some of the combinations:

• 2 or more siblings living in a house, all over 18
• 2 or more siblings living in a house, some under 18
• The partner(s) of those siblings by marriage
• The partner(s) of those siblings by civil partnership
• The children of the sibling
• The children of a partner to a sibling
• 2 or more friends for all of the cases above
• members of a community such as priests

What would happen if two bachelors were in a civil partnership, Bachelor A falls in love with a woman who moves into the house with her son. Now imagine that Bachelor A dies. Does his partner have a right to live in the house, sell her half of the house? Does her son have a right to inherit half the house or the whole house eventually. Does Bachelor A have to dissolve is partnership with Bachelor B before entering a partnership with the woman? Can he have a marriage and a partnership at the same time? Does she enter the partnership with Bachelor B by marrying Bachelor A? Does her son join the partnership too? Does Bachelor A have any responsibility for the son of his partner? If Bachelor A and his partner die, does Bachelor B have any rights or responsibility for the son of Bachelor A’s partner? They may be complete strangers or a close-knit “family”.

and another nugget from the FF manifesto in ‘02:

Fianna Fáil will support the development of new air passenger services and the maintenance of existing services at Cork and Shannon, recognising in particular the vital importance of daily transatlantic flights from Shannon for employment in the entire region.

Does that mean that the government will encourage Aer Lingus to stop in Shannon like they encouraged them to keep the Heathrow link?