It’s far too early to write off Bertie and Fianna Fáil’s achievements

IF the weather hadn’t been so good over the summer months, Bertie Ahern would have been blamed for that as well. Frankly, given the series of intemperate personal and political attacks to which he has been subjected to over the summer months, it is surprising the Taoiseach’s approval ratings are not even worse.

There are a number of issues for which Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil carries a primary responsibility but some of the things he has been blamed for over the past few weeks have bordered on the ridiculous.

Craziest of all was last week's outburst by Pat Cahill, the president of the Association of Secondary School Teachers, who tried to blame Bertie for the fact that boys do worse than girls in the Leaving Cert. The allegation that the Taoiseach was a bad example for young men was particularly strange.