The Progressive Democrats were cock-a-hoop at Leinster House. They had pulled off a double whammy: getting Mr Michael McDowell installed as Attorney General while blocking Ms Maire Geoghegan-Quinn as European Commissioner.

Ah, the sweet smell of success. A former minister and critic who had dismissed the Progressive Democrats as a threat to democracy was elbowed out of the way. And a new and powerful voice was secured in Cabinet.

Fianna Fail handlers were keeping their powder dry and a wary eye out for bruised egos. Sure, they had sent Mr David Byrne out to Europe, but at a cost of causing serious disappointment and annoyance to some high-profile party figures.

Mr Brian Cowen was said to be absolutely "cheesed" by the treatment he had received. And word filtering back from sunny Spain suggested that Ms Geoghegan-Quinn was less than gruntled. Some ministers objected at having been kept in the dark by the Taoiseach.

And beyond them stretched a line of disappointed would-be commissioners, from both inside and outside the Cabinet. As a group, they were not happy campers.

But those Fianna Fail Oireachtas members not directly affected by the exercise could live with it. They were the ultimate pragmatists. Hadn't they accepted the candidature of Mrs Mary McAleese for the Presidency over that of Mr Albert Reynolds? Backing Bertie's judgment wasn't a problem.

The stability of the Coalition Government was what counted as far as they were concerned. And the deal cut between Mr Ahern and Ms Harney looked like providing a good dollop of cement for that structure.

Staying in power and avoiding the cost of an early general election was the key. Sweetening the Progressive Democrats might add another year or two to the life of the Government. And if Mr McDowell as Attorney General was the price they had to pay, there was no sweat.

Long-faced Fine Gael people had come to the same conclusion. Their chances of an early return to government had been seriously damaged. And they outlined a scenario which would see Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats in office until 2001.

Mr McDowell's promotion in mid-July would be followed, they forecast, by a successful review of the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats Programme for Government. That would pave the way for a new National Plan, with an unprecedented level of infrastructural investment. It would be followed by another national wage agreement, underpinned by massive tax cuts by Mr McCreevy in next January's Budget. And with those structures in place, Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats could last for another two years.

Mind you, Fine Gael didn't say that publicly. Instead, Mr Gay Mitchell talked about the national interest. The Government had procrastinated over the appointment of a Commissioner for two months, he complained, and he hoped the "unseemly and time-wasting horse-trading" would not cost the State dear in terms of the portfolio Mr Byrne would receive.

Mr Mitchell mildly observed: "Time will tell whether he [Mr Byrne] will manifest the skills that are normally sought from somebody of longer standing in public life."

Mr Ruairi Quinn put the boot in. Mr Byrne's appointment was motivated by political expediency rather than the national interest. And while Mr Byrne was an exceptionally skilled lawyer, he was a political novice.

A determination to avoid a by-election at all costs was the main factor in nominating Mr Byrne, the Labour Party leader said, rather than an experienced, high-profile minister. As for the Progressive Democrats, Mr Quinn said the only reason they went along with the appointment was because they got the job of Attorney General for Mr McDowell.

The Green Party hadn't a good word to say about Mr Byrne. He did not meet the "high-profile, politically experienced" criteria set out by Mr Romano Prodi, said Mr John Gormley, and he lacked the necessary political experience at national level. They were also unhappy about his handling of the Cement Roadstone/Glen Ding Woods affair.

It was fairly run-of-the-mill stuff given the five months of backroom politicking and back-stabbing which had gone into the appointments.

First, there was Mr Padraig Flynn's smash-and-grab effort to secure a re-nomination on a February Late Late. That fiasco opened up a succession race in which Mr Michael O'Kennedy, Mr Gerard Collins, Mr Brian Crowley, Mr Pat Cox, Mr Dick Spring and Mr Alan Dukes were initially mentioned. And then the names of Ms Geoghegan-Quinn and Mr Byrne were carefully added by Fianna Fail.

Two months later, when Mr Byrne expressed no interest in the job, elements of a stop-Geoghegan-Quinn campaign emerged in Fianna Fail, with outside support from the Progressive Democrats. Members of the Cabinet raised their heads above the parapet. First, Mr Cowen and Mr Dermot Ahern were mentioned. And they were followed by Dr Michael Woods and Mr Joe Walsh.

However, the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste were determined not to have a by-election. And Ms Harney was determined not to have Mrs Geoghegan-Quinn, in spite of the pressures coming from Brussels.

The way out was Mr Byrne. The solution offered the Progressive Democrats a huge bonus by bringing Mr McDowell back into the party's ambit. Not only that, it promised greater Government stability. And the Progressive Democrats sold it on that basis. In spite of past inter-party frictions, they regarded the Attorney General-designate as "a team player", a man overdue a reward for all the work done for the party.

As for becoming a campaigning Attorney General, well, that was another matter. There was a hint of a throttled-back Mr McDowell about it all which sat uneasily with his old rallying call to be radical or redundant. Perhaps some of that undoubted energy and ability will go to reinvigorating his old party?