After several weeks in which he has shown poor political leadership and judgment, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, yesterday moved to steady the ship and to bind his party together with his new ministerial appointments. The new Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, will be widely seen as a safe pair of hands both in relation to the Stormont talks and his wider EU and foreign policy responsibilities. Critically, he is widely seen across the political spectrum as an honorable and decent man, whose integrity has not been questioned. It is to his credit that he emerged from the Haughey years with his reputation unblemished. In truth, Mr Ahern had not a great range of options in seeking to identify a successor at Iveagh House for Mr Ray Burke. Mr Andrews must seem a natural choice; he is one of the few senior figures in the party who has any experience of the peace process and has the added advantage of having had a working relationship with some of the principal participants at the talks.
Mr Andrews faces a formidable task; leading the Government team in what are arguably the most important set of negotiations since the foundation of the State. His measured, faintly distant air should counterbalance the more combative style of Mr John O'Donoghue. The hope is that they will make a good team.
The appointments of Mr Michael Smith as Minister for Defence, and that of Mr Noel Treacy as junior minister, serve different purposes. Both were prominently associated with the so-called `country and western wing' of the party, grouped around Mr Albert Reynolds. And both were left nursing wounds after being overlooked for office by Mr Ahern. Mr Smith - the only member of Mr Ahern's front bench to be passed over for office in June - had a right to feel aggrieved. He has been an innovative and energetic former environment minister who deserved better.
Mr Ahern will hope that the appointments of Mr Smith and Mr Treacy will help to quell the rebellious mood which has smouldered within some sections of the party since Mr Reynolds failed to secure the presidential nomination last month. Mr Burke's resignation, more especially his surprising - and still unexplained - decision to vacate his Dublin North seat, has deepened the sense of crisis within the party. There is a certain irony in the fact that Mr Ahern, who prides himself on his consensual style, is presiding over a party which appears increasingly riven into various factions. For his part, Mr Ahern - after little more than 100 days in office - appears to have adopted something of a siege mentality. In the Dail, and again on RTE yesterday, he appeared anxious to blame anyone and everyone for his present difficulties. The Taoiseach asserted that he had shown "sound political judgment" in his appointment of Mr Burke and his handling of the various controversies that engulfed his former minister since June. Mr Ahern must know that there are few members of his own party, let alone those on the Opposition benches, who share this assessment. His challenge now, with two difficult by-elections looming, is to put the sense of persecution to one side and reassert his authority.