Adams unsuitable to lead the opposition

IT seems like a certainty that Fine Gael and Labour will form the next government, with each securing its best ever result giving it the largest majority any Irish government has ever had.

But we must not forget the sideshow that is the importance of choosing the next leader of the opposition. Fianna Fáil seems likely to be the third-largest party but independents may have more seats. If they do they can all join together and form a technical group which would exceed the seat number of Fianna Fáil and give that new group the right to be the main opposition.

This could be bad enough, but the worst-case scenario could be that a union of Sinn Féin and some United Left Alliance TDs would join and claim the right to be official opposition.