Fianna Fβil has always had a problem with government. Perhaps because its founders spent so long fighting the State, the party has never been entirely comfortable running it.
Anyone who listened to ministers at last weekend's ardfheis must have been convinced that someone else was in office for the last four-and-a-half years: so much to spend, so little done, so much to do. Who were these guys?
Bertie Ahern had succeeded in making the Fianna Fβil-Progressive Democrat Coalition the State's longest-serving Government in peacetime: a fine achievement if being there is all you want. But his keynote speech spoke less of achievement than of what had not been done.
It was neatly summed up in an Irish Independent headline: "Tough times ahead." We need to "focus on health, transport and education," it insisted. We do, we do. The edited version in The Irish Times went on: "Dealing with the backlog of social and infrastructural problems is our priority, building a first-class transport system, a first-class education system and creating a health service we can be proud of."
Whose backlog is he talking about? What held the coalition back for four-and-a-half years? If Fianna Fβil and the Progressive Democrats really wanted to tackle our social and infrastructral problems, surely they had the time and money to do it.
But they spent the money on tax cuts for the rich, concessions for companies that could manage without them, grandiose follies like Farmleigh.
Bertie Cassidy or Butch Ahern and the Sundance Kids - Harney, McCreevy and de Valera - tossed off nonsense about losing our cultural identity in Europe and chose new slogans to suit our adopted values: if it moves, privatise it; if not, break it up for the asset-strippers.
They ride by the queues waiting for medical treatment or houses or asylum or dole. Strangelove O'Leary of Ryanair says he doesn't give a damn how many thousands lose their jobs in Aer Lingus.
Neither do the followers of Strangelove economics.
And why be modest? Why confine it to Aer Lingus? How can you say what anything's worth if it's not for sale? Now and then, though, Butch looks over his shoulder, spies some shadowy figures in the distance and wonders: Who are those guys? He and Sundance can't say that they haven't been warned.
A year ago Maev-Ann Wren wrote here: "One in four voters puts health top of the list of issues on which the next election should be fought. The electorate wants to know why our wealth has failed to deliver high-quality healthcare accessible to all."
Maev-Ann Wren's reports and comments, the Labour programme presented by Liz McManus and Fine Gael commentaries by Gay Mitchell may have approached health issues from different angles; all demanded a response by the Government.
Whatever the clean-cut Micheβl Martin succeeds in squeezing out of McCreevy now will only be a promise of something that should have been delivered long ago.
As Ahern said about overseas development aid: "We have given leadership in our commitment to reach the full UN aid target by 2007." But as one of the richest among the developed countries, with the highest growth rate in the world, we had the resources to do more than give "leadership in our commitment." The UN target is 0.7 per cent of GNP.
The sad truth is that we've come nowhere near it. But "as president of the Security Council at this critical time, we will give of our experience and wisdom to assist the deliberations of the nations of the world. . .". We will give of our experience and wisdom - there's generosity for you.
The FF-PD Coalition could have ensured that when the tough times came we'd have the services to deal with them, precisely because we'd focused on health, transport and education, not to mention housing, welfare and the environment.
Now that the tough times are here, who's to blame for the failure? John O'Donoghue knows who's to blame: it's Ruair∅ Quinn. Quinn, says John, is against everything.
Because of Quinn, says John, Labour has been left to "drift hither and thither in a sea of pompous pronouncements, pandering to populism and capitulating to cranks".
Ah, but John is on to them. John is the man to recognise a pompous pronouncement when he hears one. He could tell a panderer to populism a mile off.
Yes, Fianna Fβil would be a lot more comfortable in opposition. And if that's where it was, we'd be more comfortable too and politics would be cleaner.
And when they go, Bertie Ahern and company should take their colleagues in the Progressive Democrats with them.
If Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party are not ready for government by then, they might as well throw their hats at it.
dwalsh@irish-times.ie