Year of stagnation should be wake-up call for politicians

When he was re-elected Taoiseach by the Dáil under unprecedented circumstances, Enda Kenny said the new arrangement “would be a great test of our democracy, of our character and of this House”.

One year on and the arrangement has, on all three criteria, failed that test.

The democratic verdict of the people, in an election held 70 days earlier, gave no party a clear mandate to govern alone, to implement their policy agenda ...