A year in Government - A lot to do but patience may pay off

It is slightly unfortunate that this Government’s first report card was marked just as celebrations to mark the centenary of the Titanic’s sinking gathered momentum.

Making that connection may be a tad trite but pointing out that as Taoiseach Enda Kenny finalised his assessments, job fairs in Dublin and Cork came under siege by people looking for work, putting our grim situation in a very challenging perspective.

Even the late John B Keane, our great chronicler of weakness and greed, could not have constructed an irony as chastening as the one seen in the RDS last weekend when Fianna Fáil held a supposedly redemptive ard fheis in the same complex as a hiring fair run by Canadian state governments.