By Paddy Clancy

AN amazing boost in support for Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern and his Fianna Fail party has underlined that a week is a long time in politics.

Just days after he and Progressive Democrats leader Michael McDowell patched up a rift over controversial cash payments to Ahern in the mid-‘90s, separate polls showed his popularity rating with the public at its highest level for several years.

Fianna Fail’s standing with the electorate soared in an Irish Times poll. Support was up eight percentage points to 39%, its highest level since the last general election four years ago.

Ahern’s own satisfaction rating was up one point to 53% despite almost two-thirds of those questioned believing he was wrong to accept cash from friends to bail him out of personal money difficulties when undergoing a marital separation during his term as finance minister.

Fine Gael and Labor, who are offering themselves as a joint alternative to the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats ruling coalition in the next election, polled disastrously -– an indication, according to some experts, that voters believe they erred in not seizing the opportunity to reap political hay from Ahern’s discomfort.

Fine Gael was down two points to 26% in the poll. Labor fared even worse, down four points to 11%.

Another poll this week in the Sunday Tribune further underlined the trend, with support for Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny diving dramatically in five weeks from 46% to 38%.

“Kenny: the biggest loser” blared the Tribune front-page headline above poll details that also showed Fine Gael support had dropped by six points to 20%.

Even the staunchest Opposition party supporters were conceding that the figures indicated that Fianna Fail was heading for a third consecutive term in government, with the PDs again the most likely partners in coalition.

One prominent commentator observed, “Bertie might be a sinner, but he still knows how to run the country.”

Fine Gael’s diminishing support cast a shadow over what was being billed by members as the social event of the year -– bigger even, in their view, than the Michael Flatley wedding -- Enda Kenny’s presidential dinner at the weekend.

Tipperary South TD Tom Hayes, who recited the prayer before the meal in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel, urged diners to remember “it’s still a beautiful world.”