Friday's session of Seanad Éireann was truly exceptional. The upper house's members are approaching the end of term. Many are in full scale re-election mode and yet a socially distanced, representative group of Senators found themselves dealing with perhaps the most far reaching piece of legislation they will have come across in their political lives.
Little did they expect to be in session at all at this stage in the Seanad Election cycle nor would it be a surprise if they are called to sit again next week to deal with further Covid-19 related emergency legislation.
So what stage is the Seanad election actually at? Well, voting is already underway for 49 of the 60 seats. It is a postal vote.