PERSONAL BACKGROUND ENDA Kenny turned 55 on his most recent birthday last April. Castlebar in Co Mayo has always been home. He's married to Fionnuala O'Kelly, a former Fianna Fail press officer.

The couple have three young children . . . Aoibhinn (13), Ferdia (11) and Naoise (9). Kenny received his third-level qualification at St Patrick's College in Drumcondra, ironically, in Ahern's bailiwick. His job as a national school teacher remains open to him as he has been on leave-ofabsence since he entered political life in late 1975.

ELECTORAL RECORD With 15,584 first preferences, Kenny arrived in Dail Eireann in 1975 on the back of a by-election success in the now-defunct Mayo West constituency.

He regularly outpolled his great local rival, Fianna Fail minister Padraig Flynn.

Co Mayo was redrawn into a single five-seat constituency for the last two general elections, and Kenny was part of the Fine Gael team that delivered three seats in 1997. He had a real scare, however, in 2002 in narrowly holding onto his Dail seat. Kenny's father was a TD from 1954 until his death in 1975 while he had a brother who is a local councillor in Castlebar.

MINISTERIAL EXPERIENCE Enda Kenny had to wait almost two decades as a member of Dail Eireann before he got a senior ministerial position. He was appointed Minister for Tourism and Trade in the 1994-97 Rainbow government. Prior to that, his only other ministerial job was as a junior minister for youth affairs from February 1986 to March 1987. Outside government, Kenny has, however, been a near ever-present figure on successive Fine Gael frontbenches, although never in a high-profile position.

POLITICAL IDEOLOGY Kenny has positioned Fine Gael as a right-of-centre party but without any real sense that he's enthused to move too far in any firm ideological direction so long as the ultimate destination is Government Buildings.

With Ahern, he shares a genuine ideology-free approach to politics. At heart, both men are powerseeking pragmatists.

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES Enda Kenny was an unknown quantity when he was elected Fine Gael leader in 2002. Around Leinster Houser, he was described as affable and good company.

It was not certain, however, that he had the abilities required to turn around a party still in shock at the scale of its 2002 electoral defeat. Now it's necessary only to ask Avril Doyle or John Deasy about Kenny's steely determination.

Doyle was deeply unhappy at having Mairead McGuinness imposed as a running mate in the East constituency in the 2004 European elections.

Few believed Kenny's assertion that Fine Gael could win two seats, but Doyle and McGuinness were duly elected.

Similarly, when John Deasy stepped out of line as his party's justice spokesman Kenny showed the Waterford TD the exit door.

TEAM MANAGEMENT Kenny has surprised even his own colleagues with the confident approach he has brought to the organisation of Fine Gael.

Unlike the other parties, Fine Gael operates like a modern business with clearly defined responsibilities and close co-ordination across party structures.

Kenny is a good listener, takes advice well and is prepared to delegate responsibility to his staff . . .

all key skills in an individual who wants to run the country.

BIGACHIEVEMENT Kenny's achievements are all of a recent vintage.

There's little that was notable from his political career prior to becoming Fine Gael leader. Bringing the opening stages of the Tour de France to Ireland was the high point of his tenure as tourism and trade minister.

To his credit, however, the Mayo man has overseen the rebuilding of Fine Gael from its demoralised position after the 2002 general election. He has made his party relevant again.

In addition, securing early agreement from Labour regarding a preelection pact is not to be underestimated in allowing the self-styled alternative government to emerge as a genuine contender for power.

CELEBRITY FACTOR Kenny has grown into the role of national political leader.

This fact is typified by the now familiar use of 'Enda' when the Fine Gael leader is spoken about. Ahern has seen off two leaders of Fine Gael and Labour, but in Kenny he now faces probably the most populist leader ever to oppose Fianna Fail.

Garret FitzGerald was popular but even his admirers admit he lacked a populist touch. Kenny is coming from a long way back, but he's matching Ahern's workload in pressing the flesh and kissing babies. Election 2007 will most definitely be all about the Bertie & Enda Show.

CHILL OUT TIME Kenny climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2003 to raise money for charity and followed that achievement with a 545km charity cycle from Kerry to Donegal last September.

The sociable politician is a keen sports fan and has winning medals in the family. His father Henry was a member of the Mayo team that won the All Ireland football final in 1936, while his father-in-law won with Kerry in the 1953 final.

Affable and sociable are two words long used to described the Mayo politician who is an excellent mimic and can quote from memory . . . in an American accent . . . several speeches made by US president John F Kennedy.

READING MATERIAL The work of political thinker Noam Chomsky has been on Kenny's recent reading list, maybe given his relationship with Labour as he tries to gain a better insight into those on the left.

MEMORABLE QUOTES "I will electrify the party."

His promise to Fine Gael when losing his first attempt to become party leader in February 2001.

WORTH A FLUTTER?

The smart operators in Fine Gael will have wagered a few euro on their man when Paddy Power were offering the generous odds of 3/1. But confidence in Kenny walking through the gates of Government Buildings as Taoiseach has risen and, as a result, this weekend his odds have shortened to 6/5.

BERTIE AHERN

PERSONAL BACKGROUND BERTIE Ahern will be 55 at his next birthday in September. The northside Dubliner has an accounting qualification from Rathmines College of Commerce, although his entry in the Nealon's political guidebook once famously listed the London School of Economics as his alma mater. That "communications error" has since been removed.

Separated since the early 1990s, Ahern is the father of two grown-up daughters, Cecilia and Georgina.

ELECTORAL RECORD Ahern was first elected to the Dail in 1977 and has topped the poll at each of the eight subsequent elections he has contested in Dublin Central. The 13,589 first preferences he received at the 1989 general election remains his best ever personal vote. Politics is in the family; he has a brother, Noel, who's a TD, and another, Maurice, a Dublin city councillor.

MINISTERIAL EXPERIENCE As he told the Dail last week, Ahern has spent most of the last quarter-ofa-century either at the cabinet table or as a member of his party's front bench. He first arrived at cabinet as chief whip in March 1982 in Charlie Haughey's short-lived minority government. He was appointed a full minister for the first time in 1987, and with the exception of two-and-a-half years between 1994 and 1997, he has enjoyed the trappings of power ever since. He was a high-profile minister for labour from 1987 to 1991, after which he was appointed finance minister.

Leader of Fianna Fail since the end of 1994, he has been Taoiseach for the last nine years.

POLITICAL IDEOLOGY Ahern is a self-styled socialist. It's a description, however, that has to be accepted with the widest possible grin on one's face.

In reality, he is a pragmatic, centrist politician who tilts slightly to the right or to the left as the national political mood dictates. He'd be happy with either the Progressive Democrats or Labour as a coalition partner, so long as Fianna Fail remains in power.

LEADERSHIP QUALITIES Ahern is the ultimate trade union fixer.

Give him a room full of divided negotiators and the Drumcondra man will find consensus.

It's a trait that has served him well in partnership talks, in securing the Good Friday Agreement and in finding acceptance at EU leadership level on the nowstalled European constitution. However, he also gives the impression of a man who does not like taking difficult decisions.

He avoids direct confrontation. The mess in filling the vacancy created by Ivor Callely's ministerial resignation last December was the most recent example of Ahern's procrastination. It was not, however, the first episode of dithering. Joe Walsh and Michael Smith had their stay in cabinet extended after the last general election, it seems, because Ahern's arm was twisted not to demote the veteran politicians. He also stood by Ray Burke in the autumn of 1997 when the mounting evidence against the then foreign affairs minister pointed towards real trouble. In short, Ahern seems not to like a decent row.

TEAM MANAGEMENT Second-guessing what Bertie Ahern thinks is by now almost a permanent pastime for some of his close colleagues. He guards his opinions, keeps his views to himself and is slow to reveal a personal preference on many matters, even to his ministers and senior advisors. Ahern consults widely and is happy to delegate responsibilities leaving his staff and colleagues the time and space to get on with their tasks.

BIGACHIEVEMENT It is now hard to reconcile Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach with the leader of Fianna Fail in the 1994 to 1997 period. Frequently as leader of the opposition his Dail performances lacked focus. He now has the advantage of nine years as Taoiseach. The economy has boomed, while the history books will record his role in the search for peace in Northern Ireland.

CELEBRITY FACTOR Ahern is Ireland's first 'celebrity Taoiseach'. This a-list rating has been helped by having one daughter a chick-lit novelist and the other married to a pop star. However, even before the Ahern girls were tabloid fodder, their father was a presence on the pages of VIP. He's experienced as much of the chat-show circuit in RTE as he has questions in news and current affairs studios.

The gossip columnists have enjoyed filling their pages with both his former wife, Miriam, and his now-former partner, Celia Larkin.

Ahern has taken a 'man of the people' image and added the glamour of celebrity to boost his naturally populist personality.

CHILL OUT TIME The recent warm weather will have been helpful for Bertie Ahern in his leisure time activity of tending to the flowers in his hanging baskets. A man who likes to cook for himself when he gets in late from work, downtime is still press-theflesh time for Ahern. He's as comfortable in Croke Park as at Old Trafford, but best enjoys a quiet pint in one of his Drumcondra watering holes.

READING MATERIAL Ahern likes to leaf through the pages of Robert Putman's Bowling Alone.

The Harvard academic, who specialises in analysing the decline in civic participation, is such a favourite bedtime read that Ahern has devoured his tomes more than once.

MEMORABLE QUOTE "Waffler, waffler, you're only a waffler." Said to Gay Mitchell of Fine Gael in a spiky Dail exchange.

WORTH A FLUTTER?

Recent political controversies and mixed opinion poll results have hit confidence in the Fianna Fail leader. The odds have shortened from six months ago when he was a 1/5 certainty to be Taoiseach after the next general election.

This weekend, however, Paddy Power is quoting Ahern as a 8/13 bet to start a second decade as the incumbent in Government Buildings.