Irish eyes turn stateside for St Patrick’s Day

Irish eyes will be on the political capital of the world, Washington DC, today where Taoiseach Enda Kenny pays perhaps the last of his annual visits to the White House to meet US president Barack Obama. It's certainly the last time Mr Obama will host a visiting taoiseach for the St Patrick's Day hooley.

The Taoiseach is something of an Americanophile (he can quote from the speeches of John F Kennedy), and by all accounts his well-tuned story of Gaelic stoicism in the face of economic challenges and the national turnaround, and his mix of breezy optimism and aul’ soddery, goes down a storm with audiences there.

But Mr Kenny has cut short his intended stay in the United States due to the unsettled political situation at home and the need to attend an EU Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday. Mind you, he still has a fairly packed schedule today, shuffling from the White House to Capitol Hill and back to the White House again.

Briefing materials from the Taoiseach’s Department indicate that Mr Kenny will use the day in Washington to promote trade and investment, and to continue to advocate for immigration reform in the United States. The agenda for the two leaders’ talks focuses on “bilateral and international issues” - which could mean anything of course.

But you can expect plenty of references in their public statements to the two leaders finally getting in a round of golf next year. Vice-President Joe Biden can also be relied on to get in on this particular rhetorical act. Jokes about playing in Donald Trump's links course in Co Clare cannot be ruled out.

Sarah Bardon will be reporting on today's events from Washington for us. You can follow her on the Twitter machine, @sarahbardon. Our Washington correspondent, Simon Carswell (@SiCarswell), will be in attendance to make sure she doesn't cause any diplomatic incidents. Well, none that can't be covered up, anyway.

What next for Enda Kenny?

This time next year Barack Obama will be a youngish ex-president, probably in search of a new role (in fairness, it’s a hard job to move up from). But where will Enda Kenny be in 12 months?

We won't know the answer to that question for a few weeks at least, I think. The process of government formation is in the early stages, and although there are meetings today between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and the independents and small parties (separately, I should emphasise), I think it is unlikely that anything decisive occurs until after the Dail returns and has another go at electing a taoiseach on April 6th.

The Dail will meet next Tuesday, March 22nd, but although the Taoiseach has indicated he will give an update on the progress of government formation, most of the day will be given over to a series of statements on Dail reform, homelessness, this week's European Council meeting and this week's agriculture council meeting in Brussels.

I spoke to several people yesterday who will be involved in these meetings on all sides. The sense I got was that although they are all diligently playing their part in what they believe to be a worthwhile exercise, they are not sure where exactly any of it is leading.

Ultimately, the numbers are such that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael will have to come to an arrangement to enable any government to be formed – whether that is the grand coalition, a minority Fianna Fail administration (highly unlikely), or a minority government anchored by Fine Gael. You can read the news piece about today’s meetings here and my analysis of the situation here.

Ultimately, it is the Fine Gael-Fianna Fail talks that will be decisive. And the two parties are nowhere near being in the same room yet.