Just two of the party's eight TDs are regarded as reasonably safe . . . Michael McDowell and Mary Harney . . .

and nobody is giving the PDs a chance of picking up new seats.

The party leadership regularly makes the point that it faced into the last election with just two outgoing TDs and won seats that nobody could have predicted, such as Noel Grealish in Galway West and Mae Sexton in LongfordRoscommon.

But in the last election, Fine Gael was in meltdown and the PDs were able to present themselves as the only alternative to a Fianna Fail overall majority. The party had also delivered big time in its five years in government in the form of massive tax cuts, taxi deregulation, and child benefit and pension increases.

This time around, the government is much less popular and polls have shown the PDs at just 2%. Fine Gael, meanwhile, is buoyant . . . and we know from history that when FG does well, the PDs don't . . . and a Fianna Fail majority is simply not an issue.

Not only that but there must be serious doubts as to whether Fianna Fail and the PDs would have the numbers to form a coalition.

The last time the PDs had a bad election, in 1997, the party was saved by going into government with Fianna Fail, but a similar return of four seats 10 years on would hardly be enough to ensure a third FF/PD coalition.

It's impossible to believe that all these factors were not central to the disastrous events of last weekend when the party went from the verge of pulling out of government to stressing that it was happy to go into coalition again with Bertie Ahern provided he, in his own time, delivered a statement clarifying the transactions surrounding his Drumcondra home.

Tanaiste Michael McDowell has claimed the media blew the whole thing out of proportion.

The media has been known to get things wrong, perhaps more regularly than it would like to admit, but last weekend was not one of those occasions.

There is no doubt that the PDs were indeed on the verge of bringing down the government last weekend before common sense, in the form of Tom Parlon, and a majority of the parliamentary party, intervened.

It wasn't just the fear of losing Fianna Fail transfers (in the past two elections, PD candidates have, at times, secured up to 50% of FF transfers) that prompted this mini-revolt. There were many factors. There was a belief that it would look like a meaningless gesture at such a late stage and after 10 years in government (particularly when the PDs had stuck by the coalition during the crisis last October). Most worryingly, withdrawal from government would leave the party without any coalition options and running a real risk of being rendered irrelevant facing into a general election.

The really baffling thing is how the party allowed events to get so out of hand last weekend. On Saturday, the word was coming back that McDowell was "shocked and horrified" at the new material.

But in the days after new revelations relating to Ahern's dealings with the Mahon tribunal first emerged, McDowell was insisting that he was not going to turn himself into a mini-tribunal. What prompted this change?

There is no question that the PDs were damaged by the events of last weekend, which once again raised questions about McDowell's political judgement. In less than a week, the party leadership did a full 360-degree turn from stating that it would not turn itself in a mini-tribunal, to seriously considering pulling out of government, and back to stressing that it would be happy to go into coalition with Bertie Ahern again, albeit with certain caveats.

Not surprisingly, the opposition made the most of the PDs' discomfort. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny accused the PDs of having "no backbone", adding: "What you have seen today is like Lanigan's Ball, stepping in and then stepping out again."

If the PDs have lost five or six seats come Friday week, there is no doubt that last weekend's events will be seen as a big factor, but it would be unwise to write them off. Health has emerged as probably the biggest issue in the election.

And, for all her difficulties in that department, Mary Harney retains the respect of much of the electorate and could prove to be the party's biggest asset over the next 12 days.

If the PDs can emerge from the election with four or five seats, and if the result is tight, then the party might just have a say in the election of the next taoiseach. But it will need to show a lot more nerve than it showed last weekend.