As the DUP menacingly make noises threatening to withdraw from their agreement to prop up Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, over in Dublin the Fianna Fáil party leader Micheál Martin has written to the Fine Gael party Taoiseach Leo Varadkar making sure he understands their support through a similar arrangement is very definitely time-limited:

“I think it is best if we both state upfront, irrespective of what happens during the confidence and supply review process, that we both agree not to bring down the Government”.

This follows the resignation of Minister for Communications over allegations of an improper relationship after it emerged that he had held four private dinners with the bidder for a €500 million national broadband contract. The Irish PM is arguably more at risk of an early election than Theresa May…