THE lanky Minister for Agriculture, Ivan Yates, has few known enemies with the possible exception of a meat baron or two and a handful of vets.
A gambler by nature, who sometimes says clearly what is on his mind without weighing the consequences, Yates is in the limelight on the BSE issue and the EU beef fines.
He has come a long way since his birth in Dublin in October 1959 to a wealthy Church of Ireland business and farming family in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.
From St Mary primary school in Enniscorthy he went to St Columba's College, Rathfarnham, Dublin, where one of his most famous classmates was Adam Clayton of U2.
He then opted for Gurteen Agricultural College, Co Sligo, the better to farm the family's 140 acres, in dry stock, sheep and tillage.
The young Yates always wanted a career in politics and was soon elected to Enniscorthy Urban Council in 1979. Two years later he entered Leinster House as a TD, the youngest in the House and for a time was the only Protestant in the Dail. With his laid back style he was quickly spotted by the party leaders and he became chairman of the Dail Committee on Small Businesses.
In the those days he was described by political journalists as being "quietly controversial". He used the post as a springboard. It was in that committee that he introduced the first law on below cost selling, spoke out against high insurance costs, an antiquated legal system and castigated the then operation of building societies.
Civil servants who work for Yates are amazed at his energy. He is at his desk early every morning and can go for hours without food, much to the horror of those who like a more structured life.
Yates hitched his plough to Alan Dukes's bid for party leadership when Dr FitzGerald's time to leave centre stage arrived. Yates masterminded Dukes's challenge to John Bruton and Peter Barry but, surprisingly, was not rewarded with a fontbench position.
In fact he ended up in trouble with his party leader when he suggested that Fine Gael shout form an alliance with the Progressive Democrats in 1988.
Under Dukes's rule, however, he did manage to become party spokesman on health. And by 1990 he had made enough friends to become a serious contender in John Bruton's leadership bid, which he pulled out of at the 11th hour.
Bruton appointed him party spokesman on transport in January 1991. By then married and with a young family, he worked what he called "the pot hole agenda" until given the finance brief by Bruton in 1993. Some say Yates's demands for full blooded fiscal rectitude and tax reform were aimed more at restoring party fortunes and may not have been personal beliefs.
In December 1994 Yates was appointed Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry. It looked like the dream tickets with buoyant prices, an opening up of foreign markets and low inflation. With a gambler's skill and a farmer's eye he handled the few thorny issues, like the question of animal welfare.
In the long summer of last year Yates strode around the country dispensing goodwill and charm and he and his team managed to announce a farmer's charter and on three occasions in various guises the £640 million development strategy for the food industry.
Early on the nagging doubt that the Irish taxpayer might have to pay all of the fines imposed by the EU on the Department for breaches of regulations in the meat processing industry in the early 1990s began to emerge.
Indeed, in London at a trade fair last spring, Yates was uncharacteristically cold to Larry Goodman who arrived uninvited at the Irish stand where Yates was launching the event.
Their handshake, it was reported, was more like the collision of two icebergs than a gesture of friendship. So it was no surprise when he lashed out at Goodman in the Dail, flushing Goodman from cover to reject his claims when he said he would shed no tears if Goodman departed the industry.
Yates is well aware that he may have to bear the brunt of taxpayers' wrath, especially in his own constituency, when the money that cannot be recovered from the industry is eventually handed over.
Wherever he is going, and Yates is in a hurry to get there, he will be remembered as the man who took on the Irish Veterinary Union by privatising the Bovine TB Eradication Scheme. Determined that the 40 year saga of attempting to eliminate the disease must end, he has played hardball with the IVU to get his scheme into place.
His critics say it is apt that the scheme, which involves farmers rather than the State paying for the test, should be launched on April 1st.
Time will decide this one but the Minister is vulnerable on one key issue. Over a year ago he set up the new Irish Food Board. The farm lobby decided it did not have enough representatives and Yates gave them two extra representatives.
With growing demands for the Food portfolio to be taken from Agriculture, his critics will certainly pick him up on this.
All eyes will now be on the Minister in the crisis over Britain's mad cow disease. It casts a shadow over the pleasure he was anticipating with the EU Farm Minister's presidency later this year.