When Enda Kenny, Fine Gael TD for Mayo, warned his party colleagues a few weeks ago they would "never know what they had missed", he was speaking only partly in jest. He isn't bitter, and is almost philosophical about being excluded from Fine Gael's new front bench, but he believes Michael Noonan "hasn't had a great deal of luck" since he was appointed leader.
There was that cheque from the Norwegian communications company, Telenor; there was the scaled-down party conference, due to the foot-and-mouth alert. And if "one can't build one's happiness on someone else's misery", as the saying goes, Kenny believes it was always going to be a mistake to remove a party leader on the basis of mid-term opinion polls.
Though fiercely loyal to John Bruton during several leadership challenges, he was quick to put his name forward when his leader was ousted. It was partly the opportunity, which comes so rarely in politics, and partly the "Ahern" factor, he says. Although he has three young children, his wife, the former Fianna Fail and RTE press officer, Fionnuala O'Kelly, was firmly behind him, he says.
"Fianna Fail has never been as united in recent years - during the Haughey and Reynolds eras - as it is now. Like Bertie Ahern, I am very good with people. I felt that if Fine Gael was going to change - and it seems vain to say it - it needed someone like that."
Seasoned observers in his constituency say the Ahern analogy sells him short. Dubbed the "young Lochinvar" for his charm, wit and intellect on a one-to-one level, he appeared nervous in television appearances during the short leadership contest. With 25 years in politics, 10 general elections, several junior ministries and a full tourism brief behind him, he understands his constituents, his region, and the new Ireland emerging from the current economic "success".
The rapid growth of Castlebar is, he says, mainly due to political influence - that wielded by former EU Commissioner and Fianna Fail minister Padraig Flynn and himself. "As Charles Haughey said, the only place to be in the Dail is in government. Otherwise, you are just talking about it."
He went into the leadership campaign "to win"; and though he didn't stress it at the time, the west would have been his priority. He is very critical of the Government's delivery of the National Development Plan (NDP). "It has £40 billion to spend, and yet it is being implemented in the most amateur fashion." He believes a public-private partnership should be formed to implement the plan, with specific targets and deadlines and with a cross-departmental remit.
"The reality is that the west of Ireland - the Border, Midlands and Western region - is hugely disadvantaged. I am constantly hearing chief executives of companies saying that they can't locate west of Roscommon because of lack of electrical power. And I can't see Government departments devolving either without the proper infrastructure."
He believes in devolution of government, rather than just bureaucracy, but at regional level. "Waste disposal, to take one issue, can't be decided at local level when it is so emotive. And if you strip local authorities of that power and take the decision in Dublin, as the Minister for the Environment is now trying to do, you are seen to be imposing something against people's will," he says. Road plans are another issue that should have regional input. The title "Minister for the West" which has been loosely adopted by the current Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Galway West TD Mr Frank Fahey, is a misnomer, he says. "You can never really sell yourself as a minister for your region when you don't have cross-departmental influence.
"Proper regional structures with actual authority - and not the toothless bodies currently in existence - could work very well with the public-private partnership on realising the aspirations of the NDP."
As a former tourism minister, he is very critical of another aspect of Government policy, the all-Ireland tourism initiative. "The idea was to set up a marketing authority for the island of Ireland. Now we are going to have three agencies, which is going to give rise to all sorts of problems." He attributes this to a failure by both Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation Dr Jim McDaid and his Northern counterpart, Sir Reg Empey.
He is also very concerned about Dr McDaid's handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis. "He should be over there in the US, convincing Americans that it is safe to come here and there is no risk to human health. He should be leading an international onslaught on our five biggest markets, the US, Britain and Europe, but it is almost too late." Had the findings of the beef tribunal been acted upon fully, the situation on this island might be very different, he says. "If livelihoods are wiped out, the genuine cattle dealers will have lost everything due to the rogue element."
However, he believes public reaction has been very significant.
"The affinity between man, the land and nature, which urban Ireland appeared to have lost, still seems to exist."
