The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, took the opportunity to gently mock the press yesterday when asked what it was like to have lost so much popularity in recent times.
Asked how it felt that the Irish public appeared to be "falling out of love" with him, he suggested that much of the notion that he was extraordinarily popular had been a media invention in the first place.
Speaking at a press conference in Sligo, he suggested he was barely aware of the adulation he had received in the past.
"I always think - what's this they used to call me? Telethon something . . ." he began. "Teflon, Taoiseach, Teflon" interjected the parliamentary party chairman Mr Séamus Kirk helpfully.
"Teflon," said the Taoiseach.
"I usen't to even read that stuff you know." The press had wanted to knock him off his pedestal, he suggested.
"I remember people used to get upset and say after all we've written about him he's still up there. Well now they've got me down anyway so I have to just work a bit harder to get back up again."
He also suggested that the press contained too many bad news stories and proposed that they might consider cheering up.
He said that sometimes "we don't see all the good things and we just get paranoid about the bad things".
He said broadcasters such as CNN and Sky always put a "good news story" on their bulletins.
"It seems like a good thing to do," he remarked.
Observers believed they saw his tongue in his cheek throughout the above.