As fledgling candidate Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan took wing for Europe, veteran MEP Jim Higgins acknowledged he was poised to make his Euro exit.

Limerick is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Dublin, yet we heard on a Sunday afternoon, and again on Monday, mid-morning, and at 3pm, on the news bulletin, that a minister was travelling to the city, to personally inspect the flood damage.