Tyres on the Labour bus are going flat

Eamon Gilmore says the country has been “to hell and back” — but unfortunately for him and his Government, many people have yet to make the return journey and still feel trapped in Satan’s departure lounge.

It’s typical really, you wait ages for a Labour national conference and then two turn up at once — both heading in the wrong direction.

With the last party gathering only held at the end of November (about 10 minutes ago in the scheme of these things), this one was very much an empty TV stunt intended to grab a couple of hours of free RTÉ time before the looming local and Euro elections wipe-out.