So the PDs have bottled it.

What an amazing surprise.

But the damage is done. In my book, any credibility they ever had has gone down the toilet. They have professed themselves to be in league with a man that they don’t trust, and their cop-out clause is that ‘they want an explanation’!

We know what is coming. Bertie will get on the telly and give us some pathetic story about how it wasn’t his money, and everyone has him wrong, that he’s such a nice guy really. He’ll shed a well rehearsed tear or two and the gullible public will lap it up.

Bertie was raised in the same stable [pigsty] as Charlie Haughey. Haughey was about as corrupt as they come, and Bertie was at his side. Bertie professes innocence about the blank cheques, but either he knew exactly what was going on, or he is so naive that he should never be put in a position of power. My bet is that he not only knew, but learned the lessons well.

Now the circle is complete. We are back to having a Taoiseach with very questionable financial affairs. Like Haughey, we will not get to hear the full extent until it is too late.

If I owned a business, and my general manager came under suspicion for dubious financial irregularities, what would I do? Would I tell him to carry on, but have a report on my desk in a couple of weeks time? No. I would suspend him, pending an internal inquiry. And if that enquiry didn’t satisfy me, I’d hand the matter over to the authorities.

But McDowell thinks he knows which side his bread is buttered on.

If he abandons FF, then he knows they have virtually no chance in hell of getting back in. And there goes his chance of power in the future. No other party is going to touch him in a coalition. So he bottles it and relies on Bertie coming up with one of his staged apologies.

But the damage is done. How can the electorate possibly trust a coalition when the coalition is falling asunder immediately before an election? How can they trust FF when the leader is under such a cloud of suspicion that even his own allies are questioning him? How can they trust the PDs when they don’t have the courage of their own convictions?

One answer for FF is to replace their leader immediately. But the top contenders are mostly from the old Haughey stable as well. So they would be replacing the corrupt with the potentially corrupt.

My advice to the other parties, for what it’s worth –

Make hay while the sun shines.