By departing now, Harney has avoided having her legacy tainted by the difficult election contest that's ahead for the PDs. The next general election is likely to bring PD seat losses and could force the party into opposition for the first time in a decade. With her resignation now, Harney's electoral history will read . . . contested two general elections and following both she led her party into government.

The timing of the announcement has done Harney's successor few favours. There's at most eight months to polling day. It's a huge task in such a short amount of time for any new leader, no matter how competent, to connect with the electorate and also rejuvenate the party organisation. The PDs and their new leader would have been better served if Harney had stood down after the European and local elections in 2004. If Harney hadn't the stomach for the battle ahead she should have gone much earlier, not only as PD leader but also as a government minister. It's not tenable to half-leave the political stage as Harney wants to do by resigning as party leader but staying as minister for health. With a new leader, the PDs need to put a fresh face forward.

Having the recently departed leader hanging around at the cabinet table may well undermine any uplift the PDs are hoping a new leader will bring.

Depending on rub of the Greens
TREVOR Sargent may well be emerging as the cutest party leader of them all.

The Green Party's current campaign reminding voters that it is the only party not to accept corporate donations will do it no harm with many on the left. The Greens have also opted to keep all their options open about involvement in a coalition until after the votes are counted. They don't want to be lost in the shadow of the bigger parties.

The thinking on coalition in the Green party, however, somewhat undermines the line being spun by Fine Gael and Labour that they're the only viable coalition option on offer to voters ahead of polling day. For a long time Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte made a big play to get the Greens into their alternative arrangement.

But after the wooing was spurned, Kenny and Rabbitte, at their annual Mullingar get together last week, said their two parties would have sufficient numbers to form a government on their own.

But if they fall short of a Dail majority they will naturally seek out Sargent again and that will involve policy concessions beyond those previously outlined to the electorate by Fine Gael and Labour.

THERE may have been little national . . . or for that matter, local . . . support for the Rossport Five, but the Labour party continues to hold the campaigners against the Corrib gas line close to its heart. At the annual Labour summer school gathering last weekend, Vincent McGrath (left) of the Rossport Five was presented with the party's annual Jim Kemmy award by Pat Rabbitte. The photo opportunity came too late for inclusion in 'The Rose', Labour's new publication in which Rabbitte again promises that there will be no tax increases if his party gets into power.

Goodbye to all that
BEST wishes to Bertie Ahern who turns 55 on Tuesday. The Taoiseach shares his birthday with Gary Keegan, the Fianna Fail Dublin city councillor who resigned his position last week. Keegan, who hits 40 in two days' time, made his mind up to leave politics after failing to secure a place on the Fianna Fail general election ticket in Dublin South East.

While his 'I have a dream' advertising was a bit naff, Keegan's obvious hunger for a run at a Dail seat was not enough to convince FF handlers that he was a potential winner.

There's a lot to be said for Keegan's honesty in getting out now to concentrate on his business career rather than slugging it out for the next few years in the hope of another chance at the election after next.

The council vacancy will be filled by FF with, ironically, one of the two men who effectively ended Keegan's political career benefiting.

Of the two, Chris Andrews looks a safer bet than Jim O'Callaghan to be a member of Dublin City Council by the start of next month.