Next Taoiseach’s agenda - Daunting challenges lie ahead

Later this week the saga to identify Enda Kenny’s successor will end. Irrespective of who is chosen, the challenges facing the next Taoiseach — if they are the same person — are spectacular, varied, polarising and unprecedented.

Whoever is selected will struggle to set an agenda because so many fundamental issues are in train. Ambition may be crushed by the day-to-day; pragmatism may sideline promise.

The first among those challenges is Brexit. It is almost a year since our neighbours voted to leave the European Union but even at this point, that decision is one of the very few certainties in the process.