It has been a long week of thinking in Irish politics. Fine Gael concluded its two-day think-in in Gorey Co Wexford on Friday, while the Green Party confined its thinking to one day in Dublin. Earlier in the week, Fianna Fáil brainstormed in Tullamore, while Sinn Féin and People Before Profit each held cerebral events in Dublin.

Labour got its thinking out of the way in Galway last week. Aontú is gathering in Derry on Saturday, while the Social Democrats cogitations take place in Dublin next week on the eve of the Dáil’s return on Wednesday.

It would be hard to say that all the thinking has brought a new clarity to Irish politics or policymaking. But the week’s events offer the parties – or more accurately, their leaders – the opportunity to opine on a variety of subjects to the travelling press pack. Maybe that is the real point.

In Tullamore, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin outlined his thoughts on a wide variety of subjects in media encounters. They included but were certainly not limited to the budget, the unsettled international situation, the impending Trump visit, disabilities, childcare, migration, a possible future Border poll, child poverty and the evils of vapes (“nearly worse than cigarettes”), which he would like to ban, though has no immediate plans to do so.

In Gorey, Fine Gael leader Simon Harris addressed subjects as diverse as Michael O’Leary’s comments comparing other airlines to “rapists”, President Catherine Connolly meeting US president Donald Trump, child safety, GAA integration, the budget, the cost of living, the prospect of a united Ireland,and sundry other topics.

Labour’s Ivana Bacik, Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald, People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd-Barrett and the Green Party’s Roderic O’Gorman all had their own opportunities to unburden themselves of the fruits of their thinking. Really, though, did anyone learn a whole heap from any of it?

But the week of thinking did serve to underline some things about the state of Irish politics right now.

With a budget in sight, resources at its disposal and a cost of living squeeze getting tighter for people, the Government will spend as much as it can, consistent with its own fiscal limits – or, more likely, a bit more than those limits.

There will be tax cuts, spending increases and – perhaps – further relief on fuel costs. The one common thread among all the think-ins was the rising cost of living is by far the most important agenda for politics right now. It follows that the Government will respond to that in the budget.

The only criticism of the Opposition is that the Government is not spending enough – a criticism heard throughout the week and, undoubtedly, across the weeks to come between now and the budget.

Government protecting a broken system because it’s the easy thing to do? No change there

The constituency for prudence, as advocated by most economists and also by the Government’s own budgetary watchdog, set up in order to avoid a repeat of the last disaster in the public finances, remains largely unrepresented in our political debate.

While the Opposition is united in its demands for more spending by Government, the think-ins showed little other sign of left unity – and considerable signs of disunity. This is one of the other things to note about the state of Irish politics right now.

While the frenemies of Government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, manage to rub along together despite occasional tensions, there is no sign that the left unity that brought Connolly to the Áras less than a year ago has translated to the Dáil or to the more keenly competitive world of actual power politics.

Bacik insisted that she wanted to see co-operation on the left and pointed to joint stances in the Dáil, but McDonald bluntly admitted that an “electoral pact … is not on the horizon”.

McDonald does want the other left-wing parties to row in behind a Sinn Féin-led government, though. Poor Boyd-Barrett was reduced to complaining that he had emailed the other parties “several times” about a left-wing alliance for government, but they hadn’t got back to him. Have they not replied to you, he was asked. “Not really, no, to be honest,” he confessed.

Here’s a radical idea for the Government: start telling us the truth

It is, of course, a long way to the general election, a point Harris explicitly advised journalists to note on Thursday evening in Gorey. And this fact underpins the third thing that the think-ins made clear: with no election on the horizon, there is a sense of uneasy stability about Irish politics right now. It seems kind of static.

Within Government, there is fierce activity in advance of the budget, as Ministers wrestle with the parsimonious Department of Public Expenditure – and its commendably unyielding minister, Jack Chambers – for the best deal for their departments. His determination – so far anyway – to reduce the rate of increase in government spending is making him unpopular among his colleagues. That goes with the territory. It is also a familiar pre-budget refrain.

Much time and energy are being consumed by the European presidency. There is a bit of sniping between the partners in government, but no more than usual. And as was clear from the Fianna Fáil gathering, the question of the leadership has been put off until next year.

On the Opposition side, there is no urgency or sense of anticipation. Everyone is kind of going through the motions.

It’s times like this, of course, that something unexpected usually happens.