SO, DESPITE the odds, Bertie Ahern has pulled off his own version of the three card trick to return his band of merry rogues to power.

His idea of covering all bases means we have the usual Fianna Failures, the 'so-called-Greens', which are now more aptly a slightly dishonorable shade of yellow, and the decimated tail end of the spectacularly publicly unpopular Progressive Democrats, who will be given free rein to mess up further the public health "service" into some nightmare Frankenstein's monster of a two-tier, free market medical fiasco, while people continue to perish because they don't have enough money to avail of private healthcare. The final icing on the cake of the support of a shower of Independents who fit the classic caricature of 'cute hoor' so succinctly they could've been sent straight from central casting.

Ahern has cobbled this rag-tag bunch of political misfits together because he wants to provide the good people who voted for him with a stable government capable of running its full course. This ignores the fact that Ahern himself is entering his third term, historical quicksand for prime ministers. Just look at his pal Blair, ready to exit any day now, and Thatcher's lame duck final years. Coupled with this, the lurid details of his private and financial life keep flowing out of the Mahon Tribunal. The aforementioned morally bankrupt Greens, who one naively hoped might be able to act as some sort of watchdog, sold off their principles for the proverbial 'mess of pottage'. We'll be treated to the ludicrous sight of the new Minister for Environment, John Gormley, straight facedly justify to the populace how it's alright after all to sacrifice Ireland's most sacred place, the Tara archaeological complex, for the construction of a motorway with a highly dubious conception and he and ministerial colleague, Eamon Ryan, illustrate how they're now turning a blind eye to US rendition flights through Shannon and with Ryan himself presiding over the ongoing Shell/Rossport mess in his own portfolio.

If this is Ahern's idea of a recipe for stable government then it's most certainly different to mine. Whether or not it remains intact for the full term is dubious but then, who would have foreseen such an odd set up in the first place?

Perhaps many of the populace have simply, once again, gotten no more and no less than the government they deserve.

David Marlborough Kenilworth Park, Dublin 6w.