The Taoiseach targets business simplification, “a bigger budget”, and enlargement during Ireland’s leadership of the Council of the EU in the second half of next year. He has a Brussels ally in party colleague and Commissioner Michael McGrath.
Political commitments have come and gone. Hundreds of industry visitors and four bidders known so far make the Dublin metro a more tangible prospect.
Ireland will become utterly isolated should it choose to opt out of European defence integration as the Donald Trump-led America continues to align closer with Russia over its traditional Western allies.
Fianna Fáil’s electoral promises rely on €3bn in efficiencies and €2.2bn in “second-round buoyancy effects”. Do the numbers stack up?
The party's resilience raises two questions: why hasn't it returned to its former glory, and how has it maintained such steadfast support? Twelve graphs help explain the paradox.
Replacing Michael McGrath with Jack Chambers represents a generational shift for Fianna Fáil. But with a budget and a general election looming, it is also a big political gamble by Micheál Martin.
Ireland remains years behind European peers on offshore wind. But development giants like Denmark's Ørsted and the UK's Corio Generation believe that lag can help this country avoid the "same mistakes" made by earlier adopters.
If Micheál Martin can take comfort from his personal popularity and the assessment of his time as Taoiseach, any analysis of how the Fianna Fáil he leads is perceived produces bleak results.
The next general election might be Leo Varadkar's one last chance to show that those who put their trust in voting for him as leader in 2017 knew what they were doing.
The government have reached the halfway point but, as Leo Varadkar returns as Taoiseach, the prospect of one of the most significant elections in modern Irish history will dominate everything before too long.
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