Trading places

BERTIE AHERN and Mary Harney yesterday staked the Government’s future on the Tánaiste’s ability to deliver on the controversial health service reform programme.

However, the political consensus was that elsewhere, yesterday’s long promised “genuine reshuffle” by the Taoiseach was a minimalist exercise.

Only one senior minister and one junior minister were sacked and last night there were growing murmurs of dissent from FF backbenchers, asserting that it would do little to reverse the Coalition’s flagging electoral support.