Our government must act in public interest

This is not a chess game — politicians should go ahead and put a democratic government in place, rather than treating as pawns the honest people of Ireland who elected them.

Europe has thrown up plenty of templates for government formations in recent times. Belgium, Spain, Greece and Portugal are typical. Sweden and the Netherlands have done well as fragmented governments, while in Italy a change of Government is almost an annual event.

Ireland looks to be moving towards centre-line politics. In the 2011 election Fine Gael got 76 seats and Fianna Fáil 19. In 2016 Fine Gael polled 50 seats to Fianna Fáil’s 44; the slight difference being it was in a smaller Dáil; the 31st Dáil had 166 seats as against 158 this time.