Enda Kenny, in his four years as Fine Gael leader, has transformed FG from a political party on the edge of extinction to one that has the possibility of winning its first election in 25 years. By any standards, that is a remarkable achievement, and the least Kenny can expect in return is loyalty until after the general election.

There may be some people in the party . . .

as is always the case in political life . . . who doubt whether he is the man to deliver Fine Gael back to power. But the time for raising those doubts is after the general election, if Fine Gael remain in opposition. The only beneficiaries of doing so prior to that point are Fianna Fail and the PDs.

There is no doubt that the whole mess last week has been damaging to Fine Gael, but Kenny, returning from holidays, has handled the matter with his usual level-headed approach. His decision not to take stronger action against Deasy and Meath TD Damien English . . . as some have argued he should have done . . . was not a sign of weakness, but of political savvy. Fine Gael couldn't on the one hand argue that this was a non-story and on the other severely discipline the two deputies. Such action would have risked magnifying the whole affair in the eyes of the voting public and giving greater credence to Deasy's remarks.

Kenny's comments that he expected "every member of Fine Gael to use all of their time, effort and energy" to achieve the objective of removing Fianna Fail from office, and that discussions on what would happen after the election were "an unnecessary distraction from the task facing the party", sounded the right tone. He also made it clear that he expected no further public comment on this matter.

For the good of Fine Gael, and in the interests of ensuring a real choice at the general election, that must be the case. The battle lines for that election have been made even clearer by Tanaiste Michael McDowell, in an interview with this newspaper today.

McDowell has adopted a different position to his predecessor Mary Harney by firmly ruling out a coalition with Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens, if the numbers pointed to that option after the election. The Tanaiste deserves credit for taking such a clear and firm stand by insisting that the PDs do not agree with the type of government offered by the Rainbow parties and will not lend their support to it.

There are those who argue that there is no choice in Irish politics, and that 'all the parties are the same'. But McDowell's comments suggest that this view is mistaken.

What would really offer choice is a firm and radical set of agreed policies from the alternative Rainbow government on issues such as health, provision of public services and transport. If they can produce that between now and next May, the election may not be a done deal after all.