Why does the election campaign seem so dull? Not, I think, because so much of it is dishonest – but rather because the dishonesty is so transparent. There isn’t even the drama of outrageous fabrications. The big parties are, rather, going through the motions of mendacity. Their hearts don’t really seem to be in it.

The first weary charade is encapsulated in a pitiful little word: spats. A spat isn’t a proper row. It’s a squabble, a bicker, a marital tiff. And that’s what we’re getting from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, an old couple joined at the hip, perfectly happy together but persuaded that they ought to spike things up a bit in front of the neighbours.

The extremely self-conscious uncoupling of the two centre-right parties is so obviously an act that it feels like a game of cards in which the stakes are matchsticks or a high-wire act in which the wire is half a metre above the ground. There is no danger – we know that they have spent four very comfortable years together and will be only too happy to do the same for the next four years.

The second unconvincing narrative is the dreary game of blaming the Greens for everything the outgoing Government has done to begin to address the twin climate and biodiversity crises. These are the biggest issues facing the world, and last time any of us looked that’s a place that includes Ireland. We have, not just moral obligations, but legal ones. We are required under the Paris agreement and EU law to achieve rapid cuts in carbon and........

© The Irish Times