Taoiseach survives - Vote will not avert the inevitable

SO much melodrama, so little change. So much time and energy wasted for so very little of any immediate importance or relevance to the country’s future.

Mr Cowen remains leader of Fianna Fáil and Taoiseach but it is foolish to imagine that he is secure for anything much longer than the shortest of short terms. The sword still hangs over him on a frayed string and, like his party, it is unimaginable that he will not face his day of reckoning.

The challenger Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin emerges from the process with considerable credit. He showed unusual, selfless conviction and a degree of passion that is not always as apparent as it might be. He had the courage to express strongly held views even if those views cost him his ministerial post.