Bruton's farcical chase ‘totally staged’

‘Catch us if you can’ appeared to be the motto of Jobs Minister Richard Bruton as he set off on a whirlwind canvass of bemused voters like a little Duracell bunny.

What better way to expose the evil Seanad as the unacceptable face of the Leinster House bubble, where politicians only talk to other politicians than to, er, stray a few hundred yards outside and “bump into” a fellow Cabinet minister after managing to talk to fewer than 20 people who live in the real world?

After a race through two side alleys and a small part of Grafton St, the campaign was back where it had started just minutes earlier, only now Transport Minister Leo Varadkar was strolling towards the group.