Enda, only a coalition government can help you sort out the mess we’re in

DEAR Enda,

After 37 years in Dáil Éireann and 12 general elections, you earned highest office. This outcome is testament to your team building of parliamentarians and party organisation since 2002. You have an excellent temperament for the onerous task ahead. Unlike many well wishers that will swarm to your office in the coming weeks, I am not seeking preferment or favours, as I am happily ensconced in the private sector.

The reason for my correspondence is to proffer alternative advice to that you will receive from those closest to you. Your campaign team, personal advisers, front bench colleagues and party apparatchiks will relish the full buzz of adrenalin of electoral success. An historic Fine Gael electoral performance will nurture plenty of political testosterone. For the public, observing politics from a distance, this is most unappealing — as evidenced by past excess Fianna Fáil tribalism. Flushed with victory, there will be an irresistible temptation to form a Fine Gael government, if possible, with new Dáil arithmetic.