As we move towards the 2016 election, minds are becoming focused both within parties and within the electorate. Today’s Irish Times poll shows that Fine Gael has cemented themselves as the largest party. Hot on their heels come Sinn Fein. Labour is in single figures, but seems to have levelled out. And then there’s Fianna Fáil. They were at 17% in the last election in 2011 and haven’t moved an inch in four years.

Mickey Martin was the great white hope after the fall. He tried to do the ultimate three-card trick of saying yes, he was in government but, hey he was following orders. I even gave him some advice here.

He has had some successes. Senators like Averil Power are showing themselves as would be ministers.  Then there is the sack cloth issue. Have they learned a lesson? Are the boom days a distant memory? A blip in their electoral history.

The Government’s constant harking back to FF failure is a double edged sword. It worked for the first year or so, but FF can now rightly say

It’s your party now.

Eamon O’Cuiv was on Lunchtime offering his views. You can hear it at 12.40pm here.

Was he damning his leader with faint praise? His emphasis on the collective seemed odd. It rang hollow to me. You could hear desperation  in his voice. He knows the party is in big trouble. Did he offer a way out? I’m unsure. He did seem to rule out into rushing headlong into populist catch all policies a la Sinn Fein. However the ground he wants to stake is the one SF want to make their own.

It is interesting to hear him say the present government actually implemented the four year plan FFpresented at the 2009 election. Now isn’t that interesting. If you are so close, how about thinking about a FF/FG deal? Now that would make an interesting 1916.