Martin buys more time with frontbench shake-up

In recent months, the smell of newness around the Dáil must have been akin to a shiny car straight out of the garage showroom for Micheál Martin.

A new Taoiseach, a new leader of Sinn Féin, new politics ... but not such a new Fianna Fáil.

As leader of a worn-down party, the morally wounded Micheál Martin had to do something or perhaps face the chop himself at some stage. Amid plummeting polls, divisions on the Eighth Amendment splintering the party, and the ever-present threat of a general election, Mr Martin took the path of least resistance and reshuffled his frontbench.