The Taoiseach has been found alive and well in New York. Not since the general election of 1997 has Bertie Ahern been absent from the airwaves for such a long period. Not even half a dozen photo-shoots. Hugh O'Flaherty will never know how many community groups and publicans and under-13 football teams were deprived of our Taoiseach's services to launch whatever initiatives since the withdrawal of the Government's first nomination to the EIB. In fact, for a period it seemed as if the entire Government had gone to ground.

Then Dermot Ahern emerged with the new mantra: "We got it wrong; it's time to move on". He didn't say that the decision was wrong. Brian Cowen wouldn't even waste time on such a "narrow" agenda. At an informal foreign ministers' occasion, the Irish Minister resembled a farmer who, still in his best Sunday suit, had time only to remove his tie before getting on with the haymaking. The media thankfully didn't pick the Cabinet . . . Mr McCreevy had the full confidence of his colleagues . . . and the O'Flaherty business was in the past.

But it wasn't in the past. Enter Ulick McEvaddy, honorary Joint Programme Manager to the Tanaiste and to the Minister for Finance. As Michael Tutty prepared to pack his bicycle clips, Jim Mitchell felt he had got an offer he couldn't immediately decline. What was going on? The Taoiseach, breaking his silence and resorting to Bertiespeak, certainly feigned to be as puzzled as the rest of us. Given that he shares a constituency with Jim Mitchell, it seems odd that Bertie should have been excluded from any manoeuvre.

Suppose we take on board the Fianna Fail explanation that the Tanaiste was on a solo run. If Mary Harney is the Vicar of Dibley of Irish politics, then Jim Mitchell is the Elliot Ness and Matt Talbot all rolled into one. What better move to restore the somewhat battered reputation of the Tanaiste? Given his most recent incarnation, as chairman of the DIRT Inquiry, there would be a welcome on all sides for the Mitchell appointment. In addition, in political terms it would be seen as a generous gesture. There are very few saints in modern politics and Jim Mitchell is the closest we can offer. And like some of the best saints, Mitchell can show that he wasn't always quite so saintly and, in his day, pulled the odd stroke himself.

Once Mitchell was safely ensconced in Luxembourg, the Fianna Fail explanation goes, Mary Harney would then confess (like the Vicar of Dibley at a parish council meeting) that she was behind the move all along. Our beloved but besieged Tanaiste would be back on the high moral ground.

THIS Fianna Fail spin is not entirely implausible. But is it credible that Charlie and Bertie were outside the loop? Is it suggested that Mary Harney intended to go along to a meeting of the Troika and put Jim Mitchell's name on the table and storm out if her partners in the Coalition said no? Surely, unless she has completely lost her touch, the Tanaiste would not want to precipitate a general election? Surely not on the EIB, above all issues? The Fianna Fail response seems to be that it would never come to that.

If there is one thing the Taoiseach and his Finance Minister are agreed on, it is that there should be no general election for as long as possible and certainly not before the next Budget.

The opposition parties will see this latest bizarre twist in the O'Flaherty affair as a straw in the wind. It may portend that Mary Harney is trying to construct an exit strategy. If the FF explanation is close to the truth, then this latest sting in the tail of the O'Flaherty affair will further sour relations between the partners in Government. Was Mary Harney prepared to refurbish her own political standing at the expense of creating a by-election in the Taoiseach's own constituency? Nobody messes with Bertie's constituency.

The simpler, more straightforward explanation is that this was a cynical ploy to implicate Fine Gael in the O'Flaherty affair. Whether the Mitchell stratagem was a generous gesture or cynical manoeuvre, it is an unseemly end to a tawdry saga. The deliberate Government suggestion that Mitchell himself offered to fill the post would cause any reasonable observer to question the veracity of anything the Government says on the matter.

If this was the first week of the rest of the life of this Government it doesn't augur well for its cohesion. As oil prices surge on the world's markets and house prices surge on the domestic market, the Government has more than its share of problems. As more Chinese torture beckons at Dublin Castle, can the Government avoid a general election? Is it equipped to withstand the sustained opposition onslaught that can be anticipated when the Dail resumes?

Admittedly, this presumes the heavy hitters of both Fine Gael and Labour will step up a gear. They had the Government on the ropes for five long weeks before the recess but prior to that the performance was patchy enough. The Government parties, for their part, will believe the economic boom and a popular Budget will see them through. As the attempted stroke with Jim Mitchell proves, Fianna Fail and the PDs continue to believe the public has a short memory.

The vulgar display at the Galway races is another example of having learned nothing. Against a backdrop of tribunals and sleaze allegations, to have hosted such a brash display by wealthy party donors is the equivalent of giving two fingers to the public. If it is true the public does have a short memory, there are some events that burn themselves into the public mind.