A new government - National interest

THE indications are that neither Enda Kenny nor Micheál Martin will be elected Taoiseach today when the Dáil returns.

If that happens, under the Constitution, Mr Kenny must immediately go to Áras an Uachtaráin and submit his resignation to President Higgins. All his fellow cabinet members will also be deemed to have resigned, although they remain in office until replaced.

The President will then have the choice to either accept the situation and dissolve the Dáil or refuse and insist that Mr Kenny tries harder to form a stable government. He also has the right to exercise his most politically charged constitutional power, to address a joint sitting of the Dáil and Seanad on the matter.

Let us hope it does not come to that, and that both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will finally accept the decision of the electorate and act accordingly. If they continue to defy logic and the result is another election, voters will not thank them.

In the centenary year of the Rising, it is time for them to put civil war politics to bed and act in the national interest.