Polls apart – Fine Gael ignores public opinion and focuses on a 'regroup' 

Far from being a no-holds-barred look at what ails the party like its coalition partners Fianna Fáil, the Fine Gael exchanges were described variously as being 'unifying', 'pragmatic' and 'flat', with the issue of the 2020 general election, long in the rearview mirror

Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Leo Varadkar at  Trim Castle on Monday for the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party think-in. Picture: Colin Keegan/ Collins Dublin

A bad summer.

That is how Tánaiste Leo Varadkar surmised the last number of weeks for his party as Fine Gael gathered at Trim Castle Hotel in Co Meath for two days in the shadow of the Zappone controversy.