But for reasons I will outline later, I feel compelled to write.

I am also conscious that journalists are not exactly top of your Christmas list at the moment - and that's fair enough. Just for the record, I have only claimed expenses about three times in the past five years but, on a more serious note, I can understand some of your frustrations about the media. It is easy to be the hurler on the ditch, theorising about what should be done. It's entirely different being in the middle of the action, making tough decisions on a daily basis that affect thousands of lives and having those same decisions scrutinised in the abstract by know-it-all hacks. Any one of us in the media who doubts for a second that you could buy and sell us all in an instant is an even bigger eejit than you already seem to think we all are.

Asked to define greatness in a footballer, Liverpool legend-turned-TV pundit Alan Hansen replied that his simple test was "show me your medals".

And there is no doubt that, in the political game, you have medals aplenty. To win three general elections in a row is simply extraordinary.

Of course, Dev's record is technically better but he wasn't facing anything like the same competition or problems that you have faced over the past decade. In cold electoral terms, you have to be regarded as the most successful politician in the history of the state (and when you think of it, we didn't have too many successful ones prior to 1922).

But going back to Hansen's line, being a great footballer is surely about much more than winning medals - is Gary Neville a better defender than Paul McGrath, or Paul Walsh (remember him? ) a better striker than Gary Lineker because Neville and Walsh won league medals in England? Hardly. The same holds for politics. Se�n Lemass never won an overall majority at a time when it was expected of a Fianna F�il leader, but almost everybody regards him as our best-ever Taoiseach.

It would be churlish to deny your own considerable achievements during your 10 years in the top job. No matter what happens between now and your retirement from politics, nobody can take away from how you brought home the peace process - it is an outstanding legacy.

You have also overseen a decade of unprecedented prosperity. That record on the economy has helped put you where you are today - four days away from being reelected Taoiseach, for a third term. You have already said that you won't contest another general election, which realistically means you have about three years left in Government Buildings (assuming, ahem, that the Mahon tribunal doesn't deliver any bombshells in the meantime) and it is those three years that really prompted me to write.

During your time as Fianna F�il leader, you have always obeyed the first rule of politics - get elected. That's only to be expected from a heavyweight politician. But as you, above anyone, must know, the need to win elections can seriously restrict your ability to really deliver as Taoiseach, when you often have to do the popular thing instead of the right thing.

However, with no more elections to contest, you are now largely free of such concerns. Your record will always read 'played three, won three, lost none'. But a bigger prize now potentially awaits you - a place in the pantheon up there alongside Lemass. Despite our undoubted successes over the past 15 years - most notably the elimination of the twin evils of emigration and unemployment - serious issues remain to be addressed.

We spend billions extra on health every year, yet those with cystic fibrosis still have a lower life expectancy here than in the UK. We have a huge problem with suicide among young men but there is no 24hour counselling service available. We have a fast-growing population yet virtually all of that growth is taking place outside our main cities, which is bad planning.

We take more than 10 years to build a metro line that is done in four years in Spain. We have a public sector to which large pay increases have been awarded with little in the way of increased flexibility and reduced bureaucracy in return. We pay lip-service to green issues but are completely car-dependent and in breach of our obligations under Kyoto. Our universities are in danger of slipping down the international rankings because funding has been a problem since fees were scrapped. Poverty, though hugely reduced, still exists, yet child benefit is still given to everybody equally, regardless of their means. We have a national drink problem.

Beginning to solve these problems will require radical new thinking - the type that Partnership, for all its merits, is simply not capable of fostering. It will also require that vested interests - public sector unions, developers, publicans, farmers etc - are faced down when necessary. It will need real leadership, not focus group-led policies. And, crucially, boldness and courage, rather than caution and tactical nous, are called for.

When Lemass took over from Dev, he was in a hurry, a man with a mission determined to bring about change. The same decisive approach from you over the next three years could surpass everything you have achieved over the past 10.

Is mise le meas, Shane (a constituent)