FORCE Bertie Ahern to go without sleep for 50 hours while negotiating between opposed groups in different rooms, and there's no problem.
Require him to tough out a currency devaluation, and it won't knock a feather out of him. Hold out the job of Taoiseach to him, then grab it away just as he reaches for it and he'll cope.
The really tough job for this man is the job he's got to do in the next week. No, not come to an agreement with the Progressive Democrats that's easy - compared with the main task of picking a cabinet. Picking a cabinet means disappointing people, and Bertie Ahern will go to astonishing lengths to avoid disappointing anybody. But disappoint he must, and the canvassing is already under way.
Some of the canvassing is being done through the media; the word being put out to journalists that this person should really get such and such a post because of their contribution. The canvasser hopes that the crucial intervention of an "objective" outsider in the media will tip the balance.
Some of the canvassing is up close and personal, and it's fair to assume that the Taoiseach designate is listening with great courtesy to every suggestion being made but not giving away much of his plans. Ahern has some advantages in picking his cabinet, not least of which is the fact that Fianna Fail is more united than at any time in the past 20 years. There are no obvious camps" within the party, and he will be very determined, in his selection of a new cabinet, that he does not create any.
Another advantage is the numerical strength of the PDs, or the lack of it. A double edged sword, this one. The temptation to use a bit of triumphalism will be ... resisted by Ahern, even if in the short term some of his troops complain about the PDs doing better than their electoral success would justify.
In Ahern's place, I would accommodate Michael McDowell by making him Attorney General, partly on the basis that having him inside the tent would prevent him from being (as he was during 1989) a destabiliser. The new government needs like a hole in the head a permanently angry SC available to every radio programme and features editor as a supplier of tightly argued disagreement laced with sulphuric acid.
Of course, the first problem with any strategically justified appointment along those lines is the number of party supporters and members of the parliamentary party who see cabinet posts as a reward, rather than an empowerment.
There are lots of people around who deserve reward, ranging from Eamon O Cuiv for sheer hard work and for doing his personal best to bring in a third seat in Galway West to Ivor Callely, who has taken a leaf out of Gillian Bowler's marketing book and posted stickers saying "Thank you" over his bus shelter posters following the election.
But the issue is not reward for good done in the past. The Taoiseach designate must rescue some demoralised departments, solve some outstanding problems, underline some major commitments and at the same time create a strong team. It is often assumed that if you pick a lineup of the best individuals, the end result will be a strong team.
The reality is rather different. The best teams, at the beginning, appear problematical, because of the juxtaposing of the gauche and inexperienced beside accomplished old hands, and because innovative iconoclasts are sitting beside cautious consolidators of the status quo. So some of Ahern's choices will make sense only in the longer term.
Were the leader of the opposition to consider strengthening demoralised departments there would be a strong case for putting Mary O'Rourke into health. Her previous experience in the Department was short, but her administrative competence, added to the fact that she has not been "marking" the Minister for Health, would allow her to reshape the health services in this country as they need to be reshaped.
Her own ambition for an economic portfolio would not be completely thwarted: rather the reality is that in the western world the provision of health care and the surrounding complex issues of technology, entitlement and age are key to the economic health of a nation.
In general, the promotion of frontbench people to the ministries they have been "marking" is not a good idea. For one thing, it gives a stale flavour to the incoming government, not to mention severe indigestion to the department that's been pounded, over previous months, by the new minister. Quite apart from that the fact that the summer recess is just around the corner would allow any new ministers plenty of time to read and question their way to competence in a new area.
That should be the first priority of new ministers: achieving personal competence. Not appointing rafts of staff from among the people to whom ministers feel they owe something.
While appointing "shadow" spokespeople to the departments they have shadowed is not always a good idea, there are certainly examples of where a good job done in opposition should be continued in government. Take, for instance, the issue of disability, examined but not acted upon by the present Government.
Mary Wallace made this issue her own some time ago, and with precious little in the way of resources developed a fine comprehensive policy on it. There is a likelihood that a minister of state will be given responsibility within the next government for disability, and on that minister of state's job Wallace has a considerable claim. Similarly Charlie McCreevy's unbending allegiance to spending control would indicate his suitability for the finance portfolio.
I suspect that, by way of response to the sustained campaigning of the ISPCC and Barnardos, one of the cabinet ministers will have a responsibility for children built into their title. If this is the case I hope the issue is properly thought out.
We've had experience in the past, notably in regard to women's issues, where a junior minister, ostensibly in charge of an issue, in fact ended up in an important coordinating role within which nothing much could be achieved. If we want to implement the preventive lessons we believe we've learned from the scandals of the last few years, it's teeth, not title, that should be prioritised. This must be a cabinet post.
Avoiding the appointment of someone carrying historical baggage has to be a priority. Ahern has managed, without the crudity of a phrase like "new Fianna Fail", to put distance between his team and any earlier ethical shoddiness, and he will be at pains to avoid appointing someone to cabinet who might be used to close that distance and to put the party back into an old box.
On the other hand one of the undoubted assets of the new team may be less than fully rewarded for his efforts. David Andrews, having brought Mary Hanafin in, would have been entitled to expect a free run at the Presidency as a consequence. However, because of the tight numbers, senior Fianna Fail sources now believe this is not on. The party could not win the by election.
The rules of engagement with the PDs should be clearly laid down in advance The small party in government, particularly in partnership with Fianna Fail, will often seek to play the opposition in government games. That is done through leaks and "reluctant" accidental breaks of cabinet confidentiality.
If the new administration doesn't head this problem off at the pass, it will be in trouble within six months, not least because Mary Harney has built a substantial reputation on image; not on performance in government, but on eloquence and good media relations in opposition.
Old habits die hard. Old habits with a reliable payoff die even harder. Plus, the leader of the Progressive Democrats will be under grassroots pressure for the duration of the government to prove that she has not sold the pass (the possibility of building the PDs back into a fighting force in Irish politics) by going into government.
IMAGE and public perception are also important when it comes to the job of government chief whip and Ceann Comhairle. The first of these roles will be vital to the government's survival. It has to be someone close personally and geographically to the Taoiseach. Someone of authority and of even temperament.
The Ceann Comhairle's role has been better handled than it deserved to be in recent years, given the numbers dominated way in which people have been selected for the task.
The fact is that the Ceann Comhairle must be someone of experience, who understands procedure and protocols. It should also be someone who in their person could creditably represent the Irish parliamentary system overseas. The role should certainly not be given to someone who lacks dignity and polish, simply in order to get the numbers right.