Gerard Howlin: Golfgate shows the government has the wrong clubs in the bag

The political confection of the three-party coalition is so synthetic it curdled in the making

Today Micheál Martin is a nominal Taoiseach, a de facto minister for education and an acting minister for agriculture. Picture: PA

The problem for government is not that it might fall, but that its constituent parts cannot find an exit.

Conceived as political expediency, with unfulfillable promises as garnish, it lacks the authenticity to provide legitimacy. It is not that it lacks a democratic mandate. It has that. The Sinn Féin narrative that this is not the change the people voted for is true to a point. It is certainly not the government people voted for. But we the people don’t elect governments; we elect the Dáil.