Flights to Ireland’s main airports are to be disrupted tomorrow after air traffic controllers announced they are to strike in a dispute over new working practices.

Members of the Impact union said they are to stage a walkout in protest against the decision by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to suspend 15 air traffic controllers who refused to co-operate with new technology.

A large blaze has engulfed a building at the depot of drinks giant Guinness in Dublin.

Flames and plumes of black smoke could be seen across the city as firefighters battled the fire.

A spokesperson for Guinness makers Diageo said the fire was in “an infrequently used” building at Victoria Quay.

The area around the building has been evacuated and no-one has been injured. (Via Original Source)

The Irish economy saw modest growth in the third quarter of this year.

Figures just released by the government’s statistics agency showed gross domestic product rose by 0.3% compared with the quarter before.

The figure indicates the country has pulled out of what was one of Europe’s worst recessions.

The economy shrank by 7.4% compared with July to September last year, although that is better than the second quarter’s year-on-year fall of 7.9%.

Up to a quarter of a million public sector workers are taking part in a national strike in the Republic of Ireland today.

Civil servants, some medical staff and teachers are protesting at government plans to cut the public sector pay bill by 1.3bn euros next year.

They say they cannot take any more cuts in their wages after an emergency budget earlier this year.

Almost all public offices and schools are closed.

Irish voters have given a “convincing” Yes vote for the Lisbon Treaty, giving the green light to the creation of a European Union president and “foreign minister”.

The result, to be officially confirmed later on Saturday afternoon, overturns last June’s Irish referendum rejection of the controversial EU treaty, amid claims by No campaigners of “bullying and blackmail”.

Micheal Martin, Ireland’s foreign minister, hailed the victory after a bitter campaign that pitted all the mainstream political parties and big business against a tiny coalition of No campaigners.

If Irish voters accept the Lisbon Treaty on Friday, the starting gun will fire on a tight race for the EU’s first president but a second rejection will plunge the 27-nation bloc into crisis.

“At stake is much more than the credibility of Ireland’s already enfeebled government,” reckons Hugo Brady, an expert at the Centre for European Reform in London.

“A Yes vote would allow the EU to improve the way it makes decisions, particularly in foreign policy.

On a wet and windy evening in early autumn, there must be better ways to spend your time than going to door-to-door in south-central Dublin.

But that is what 15 or so volunteers from Coir (which means “Right” in Irish) are doing, trying to persuade voters that the Lisbon Treaty should be given the boot a second time when the Irish vote again on 2 October.

The government has climbed down over plans to make people show passports for travel between Britain and Ireland.

There are currently no passport controls for Irish and UK citizens travelling in the Common Travel Area (CTA) between the two islands

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas had said controls should be in place to tighten security.

But the House of Lords voted to remove the clause during the passage of a borders bill.

As the once-strong Irish economy continues to sink thousands more are turning to booze, a leading medical expert warns.

Dr Conor Farren, Consultant Psychiatrist at St Patrick’s University Hospital, said the downside to years of economic boom was now becoming evident.

“It is only now, in the post-boom period, that we are recognising some of the negative consequences of the boom,” Dr Farren said, who works at Ireland’s leading mental health hospital.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said Friday that he expects a new referendum to be held in Ireland on a vast European Union reform treaty in early October.

“I am confident now we have a solid basis to go to the Irish people and ask them again to ratify the treaty so that Europe can move on,” he said, after EU leaders gave guarantees the Lisbon Treaty would not limit Dublin’s sovereignty.

European leaders on Thursday were close to approving Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as EU Commission chief, but struggled to agree on how to relaunch the stalled Lisbon Treaty in Ireland.

The 27 leaders were also due to discuss efforts to tighten financial-sector supervision, despite British reluctance to hand over powers to new EU authorities.

Little more than a week after European parliament elections, Barroso is virtually assured of winning five more years. There is no other viable candidate.

The Republic of Ireland’s governing party has had a big drop in support in the local elections and two Dublin by-elections, according to exit polls.

It is Brian Cowen’s first election since he became Irish prime minister and Fianna Fail leader last year.

Turnout was between 55% and 60% and an exit poll conducted by broadcaster RTE indicated significant losses for Fianna Fail on the last local election.

The Irish Republic’s government is to unveil its second budget in six months as the economy contracts sharply.

Dublin faces the double challenge of dealing with a deepening recession while being forced to correct the worst deficit in Europe.

Unemployment is tipped to near 12% in 2009 and based on government forecasts the deficit could reach four times the level allowed by the European Union.

The Irish emergency budget is likely to mean higher taxes and lower spending.

The rate of unemployment in the recession-struck Irish Republic rose to 11% in February, the highest since 1996, official figures have shown.

The rate rose from 10.4% in January and from 7.7% during the October to December quarter of 2008.

Some 370,000 people got a jobseeker allowance in February, 87.5% more than in February last year and a new record.

Next week, the Irish government is due to unveil an emergency budget to try to curb the worst recession in decades.

The Irish airline had hoped for a thousand people to turn up to promote several new routes from Gatwick, but even the offer of two free flights and the unseasonably warm weather was not enough to encourage more people to expose themselves. The Metropolitan Police confirmed that less than half this number were present.

The Irish Republic’s economy will shrink by more than 6% this year, the country’s top central banker has said.

Unemployment will average about 11%, John Hurley, the governor of Ireland’s central bank, told a committee of MPs.

That kind of contraction would make Ireland one of the worst-hit economies in Europe by the global downturn.

Mr Hurley also admitted “risks to this outlook remain to the downside” and said central banks were looking at “non-standard” policies.

More than 75,000 flights could be disrupted should a nationwide strike go ahead on March 30 – a move that could see the country’s three primary airports shut down.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) last week sent ballot papers to thousands of trade union members regarding strike action. Ictu, and affiliated unions such as the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), represents the majority of workers at Ireland’s major airports, including security staff and air traffic controllers.

Close enough that prominent people are raising the spectre of capital account flight already underway. Today saw a bleak op-ed in the Irish Times by former European Commissioner and GATT/WTO head Peter Sutherland. Now Sutherland arguably got his hair singed on the other side of the crisis as a RBS Director (a position relinquished a few weeks ago). His key point is that a crisis could originate not from directly within the public finances (at least the finances as they were) or from bad loans of banks but from a loss of bank deposits and in that sense very much an emerging market style of crisis

What is expat living like for María, a Spaniard who moved with her boyfriend to Ireland three years ago? Here she shares aspects of her expat life there, like how she found a job, her perceptions of the Irish, and the cost of living in Dublin. She also gives some tips you might find useful if you’re planning on moving to Ireland. (Via Expat Interviews)