Bertie still in office, but Brian's now in charge

DAIL SKETCH:THE TRANSITION is already evident. Bertie Ahern is still in office as Taoiseach. Brian Cowen is in power. Yesterday, the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance took the Order of Business, as he does on Thursdays in Ahern's absence.

His style is no longer dismissive. The world-weary gravitas has been ditched for the persona of a taoiseach-in-waiting ready to engage constructively with the Opposition.

Around him sat some of his fellow Ministers, hoping to hold their jobs or be promoted, and anxious backbenchers, who will wait patiently over the next few weeks, eager for a ministerial nod.

The speculation is intense about the formula Cowen will use in choosing his Cabinet: minimum change or a major reshuffle? Biffo (Big Idealistic Formulator From Offaly) was in excellent humour, oozing bonhomie.

Everybody knew yesterday it is just a matter of time before the coronation, when the mantle of office passes without controversy or rancour from Ahern to Cowen.

Shades, according to Fianna Fáil old-timers, of the transition from Eamon de Valera to Seán Lemass in 1959.

Cowen's high was such that he did not appear to know what day it was. He mistakenly read the schedule for Wednesday's Order of Business, referring to business to be taken "tomorrow". Some deputies wondered if there was to be an unscheduled Friday sitting.

Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue noted that the Tánaiste was reading the wrong schedule. "My apologies to the House," said a humble Cowen.

Fine Gael's Paul Kehoe suggested that the error was due to nervousness. Never. Cowen is regarded as being already past the post in a race that never really started.

Fine Gael's James Bannon thought that Cowen had been singing on Wednesday night. Wrong, again.

The singing is being done by his Fianna Fáil colleagues. From Minister to backbencher, they are all singing his praises to the chorus of career advancement.

Cowen shamelessly flirted with Labour, despite Fianna Fáil's political marriage to the Greens and PDs. He assured Eamon Gilmore that he was held in high regard by his Labour colleagues. And he heaped praise on Gilmore's colleague Michael D. Higgins. "Deputy Michael D. Higgins was in government in the past," said Cowen. "He was an eminent colleague and I remember him with great affection." Fine Gael's Bernard Durkan was unimpressed by the political love-in. "That is touching," he remarked.

Higgins portrayed himself as a good cabinet colleague when he had worked in government with Cowen. "I overcame so much obstruction nicely," he said.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern recalled Des O'Malley's dire warning of years ago that Higgins would go mad in government. Cowen said he felt that Higgins had been happier in coalition with Fianna Fáil rather than the rainbow. This provoked a collective Fine Gael scowl.

"I would have thought he and I were philosophically closer than he may have been to others," said Cowen.

Unlike the outgoing Taoiseach, he stopped short of calling himself a socialist.