None of his four potential challengers . . .

Brendan Howlin, Liz McManus, Eamon Gilmore or Joan Burton . . . seem prepared to embark on what would be a first for the Labour Party: a direct heave against an incumbent leader.

The party's first post-election task will be to bury the Mullingar Accord with Fine Gael. That move will come on June 14 when Labour joins with Fine Gael in voting against Bertie Ahern's nomination as Taoiseach. Should Ahern, as expected, be successfully elected Taoiseach then the other nominations including Enda Kenny's will fall. Labour will then have fulfilled its pre-election deal with Fine Gael. The party will then embark upon the difficult task of rebuilding and rebranding outside the constraints imposed by the four year long alliance with Fine Gael. As Michael D Higgins told his colleagues last week, "We cannot be in coalition while in opposition."

There was little public rancour at last week's meetings of both Labour's new parliamentary party and the National Executive Council. There was general acceptance that Rabbitte had performed well in the election campaign. But in private many TDs are highly critical of the strategic approach adopted in agreeing Labour's relationship with Fine Gael. The much vaunted Mullingar Accord delivered nothing for Labour, with the party now back in Leinster House with a seat less than in 2002, and with the seat gap between themselves and Fine Gael increased from 10 to 31 seats.

Back in 2002, a slightly better election outcome led Ruairi Quinn to call time on his period as party leader. Rabbitte will not follow this route but he faces an enormous test of his leadership in a postMullingar world.

Over the life of the 30th Dail, Labour will have to confront serious organisational and ideological challenges. Last month's poor election performance has left gaps in several constituencies including Carlow-Kilkenny, Tipperary South, Tipperary North, Kerry North, Kerry South and Dublin North. The election outcome showed the party's vote performance to be very unevenly spread across the country. There were exceptionally strong performances from candidates like Roisin Shortall in Dublin North West and Joan Burton in Dublin Central. But many others like Dominic Hannigan in Meath East and Phil Prendergast in Tipperary South polled poorly. Labour insiders say the next few months will be about digesting the implications of these results and also reflecting on the party's policy positioning. The centre in Irish politics is a crowded place with Labour lost in the shadow of Fianna Fail, set to be back in government, and a revitalised Fine Gael.

The next few months will also show the new dynamic on the opposition benches dominated by a more strident Fine Gael with increased numbers of right-leaning politicians including Alan Shatter, Sean Barrett and Lucinda Creighton. This political reality may actually widen the policy gap between Labour and Fine Gael. Few party figures expect Labour to face into the 2009 local and European elections with any transfer or policy arrangement with Fine Gael. Mullingar Part Two is a very slim possibility. What Rabbitte needs to decide, if he's to lead Labour into another general election campaign, is what this all means for his party's electoral strategy.

But as several of his parliamentary party colleagues indicated last week, getting the policy mix right might actually make that choice for him.