Harney has said her main objective in the final five years of her political career is to oversee the reform process in the health sector.

The best laid plans, however, are sometimes never realised. And now Harney is confronted with the reality that the party she helped to found . . . and which she has more than most helped to shape . . . now needs her talents once more.

By rejecting the idea that she return as leader, Harney would be all but confirming that the PDs have no future. The other PD TD, Noel Grealish, does not have the necessary profile to lead a national party. The same can be said for the two ambitious but outgoing senators . . .

Colm O'Gorman and Tom Morrissey . . . both of whom have signalled an interest in the position.

The PDs hav e lost all their leading players with the exception of Harney. Michael McDowell walked away as the electoral wreckage was unfolding on election night last May. Liz O'Donnell started a new career.

Tom Parlon took a little longer to mull over his options but ultimately the thought of kickstarting the PDs while battling to rebuild his own Dail career was not tempting enough.

Harney remains in frontline politics. She cannot simply take a cabinet position while abandoning her party. If she is not prepared to play a full part in attempting to rebuild the PDs, she should resign from the party and remain in government as an independent member or even consider rejoining FF.

Such an option, however, is unlikely as Harney has given too much of her political life to the PDs. She has often said that Irish politics needs the PDs. Certainly, the Dail is a better place for having different viewpoints and hearing a variety of opinions about how Ireland should be run.

We have two large centrist parties . . . Fianna Fail and Fine Gael . . . with little real difference between them. Labour and Sinn Fein populate a left-of-centre space while the Green Part, primarily emphasise the growing environmental strand of modern political life. The PDs also have a role to play as a party of business, low taxation and private enterprise. It is important that the committed advocates from such a political position are heard in parliament and political life.

Harney need not fear that remaining as PD leader would detract from her agenda as health minister. The PDs need Harney as a figurehead. She is their best known . . . and last remaining . . . political asset.

The appointment of an influential national organiser with the title of party president from outside the Oireachtas would remove much of the day-to-day graft of rebuilding.

With a relatively stable political outlook, the PDs know the local and European elections in 2009 can be a platform to prepare for a general election in 2012. Five years is a long time in politics, but if those who are left wedded to the party of Des O'Malley are prepared for a hard slog, there is no reason why the PDs cannot continue as a small but influential force in Irish politics.