It might be a good idea, when acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin eventually meet, to have a reliable note-taker present.

The differing accounts presented by the two men of their contacts yesterday – I rang him; no, I texted him first; no, no, he never rang me back – were entertaining, if a little juvenile.

But they might need to be a bit more precise on what they agree about the government and leadership of the country.

The process of putting together a new government from the unprecedentedly fractured Dáil elected by the people five weeks ago has been, so far, a tortuous one. After yesterday, that looks certain to remain its most public characteristic. Warnings that the public is losing patience with the spectacle will intensify in inverse proportion to the actual evidence for that.

The talking going on between the big parties and the Independents and small parties is not pointless; nor is it time-wasting. It may be unnecessarily protracted, unglamorous and at times tedious, but so is the work of government a lot of the time.

There may be an unpleasant shock today when Minister for Finance Michael Noonan arrives at the process and dispenses some hard fiscal and economic truths. “If you want X, then you can’t have Y,” is the characterisation of one person involved, who wonders – as do many in Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Civil Service – what the Independents will make of that. But there is a point to this process, and also a trajectory.

Serious talks ahead

It cannot, however, reach a conclusion until the next phase, when the two big parties finally talk seriously to one another. If there was significance to yesterday’s developments, it was that this is finally publicly acknowledged. Better late than never.

In truth, there has already been some back-channel communications in recent days between senior members of the two parties on possible talks. But you didn’t have to be a genius to figure out we would get to this point. You just had to be patient.

We might all have to be a lot more patient because this process is not going to be over anytime soon. Martin told reporters yesterday government formation may take a “few weeks”. He appears to be in no hurry. The process is not going to be over soon, perhaps, but it is moving to a new phase. That will be definitively marked next Wednesday when the Dáil meets – and so do the two leaders.

And what then? It is likely the Fine Gael leader will present Martin with something looking like a draft programme for government he has agreed with the Independents. The Fianna Fáil leader will then counter with his price and his conditions for facilitating the minority Fine Gael-led administration. Then, dealmaking.

For that final phase to be productive there needs to be some public and private trust between the two sides. At the moment, as yesterday’s messing demonstrated, no such trust exists.

Pathfinders for the two leaders will probably be trying to create the grounds for trust to grow over the coming days. They have their work cut out.