Dáil Day One: The bickering aside, political system in state of uncertainty

The phony war is dead. Long live the phony war.

Since the counting of votes completed ten or so days ago, and the last of the 158 seats of Dáil Éireann was filled by Willie Penrose, a rather futile exercise has taken place under the pretense of attempting to form a Government.

For all his talking with Independents and smaller parties, Enda Kenny was only able to muster the 57 votes of the Fine Gael and Labour parties. Micheál Martin could only manage 43.