An uneasy peace prevails in Government after a strange week of brinkmanship, paranoia, fear and the refusal of Mary Harney, to meet Bertie Ahern during the near-collapse of the Coalition. But just as the wounds have been bound yet again, the Government partners turn with apprehension to the next danger zone - the Flood Tribunal.

"We've survived this week but you can't help thinking we're on countdown to a general election. The past six days have shown us how vulnerable we are and God knows what lies ahead in the tribunals," said one Fianna Fail backbencher.

Both parties agree it was the shuttle diplomacy engaged in by Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy that brought them through. Mr McCreevy was also involved in attempts to save the ill-fated FF/Labour coalition in 1994 and this week Albert Reynolds remarked to him that he hoped this deal would last longer than that bargain.

Bertie Ahern, the renowned mediator credited with unnatural negotiating skills, was out in the cold as far as the Progressive Democrats were concerned. Astonishingly, though the Government was on the brink of collapse, he and Ms Harney did not speak to each other for a full week up to Tuesday evening.

Sources said the Tanaiste was so furious, she refused to meet the Taoiseach until the matter was resolved. He couldn't talk his way out of this one; he had to be humble and contrite - publicly.

Acting as mediator between the two factions, Mr McCreevy, who has been a friend of Ms Harney for many years, conducted four diplomatic shuttle missions between Government Buildings and the Tanaiste's office in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, after the PDs failed to turn up for Cabinet on Tuesday.

Fianna Fail's alarm bells were ringing loudly after Morning Ireland on Tuesday when Ms Harney made it abundantly clear she did not agree with Mr Ahern's optimism that the Government would last full term.

When Fianna Fail Ministers arrived on "the Taoiseach's landing" in Government Buildings for the 2.30 p.m. Cabinet meeting, they were told it was postponed. But they stuck around, anxious to avoid going to Leinster House where the media were to gather.

Mr Ahern and some of his key Ministers considered the options. They established the PDs' bottom line - an apology and stark clarification that Ms Harney had indeed sought that he put the matter on the record of the Dail.

A compromise statement was drafted and Mr McCreevy travelled - somehow avoiding the waiting media - between Government Buildings and Ms Harney's Department on up to four occasions, amending the document to meet the PDs' needs. With tension mounting and rumours of a possible collapse circulating, they reached agreement after 7 p.m.

Mr Ahern had indeed promised to make his involvement in the Sheedy affair known to the Dail last Wednesday week. Ms Harney was shocked and more than a little worried to learn in Luxembourg that he had allowed the opportunity to pass and had not complied with her wishes.

But still she did not contact him. Instead, she returned to Ireland on Friday and went to Donegal to stay with friends for the May bank holiday respite and to do some business engagements in the county and in Derry.

Her anxiety heightened when she saw the Sunday Tribune lead story publicly proclaim the Taoiseach's involvement in the case. Party members were aghast and Fianna Fail backbenchers disbelieving as the story revealed he had made representation to the Department of Justice over the possibility of day release for Sheedy.

"I thought the newspaper had made a big blunder when I read the headlines. After all that has happened, I couldn't believe that Bertie had done that and was silly enough not to make it public," one Fianna Fail TD said.

Just six weeks before the local and European elections, this was all the party needed. How could he have so misjudged the situation by not revealing his intervention? What were his advisers telling him?

But PD members were unhappy with their leader too. She may have told the Taoiseach explicitly to come clean but she should have exerted more pressure on him when he let Parliamentary Questions pass and failed to do her bidding.

According to sources, Ms Harney was very upset but, as one senior source said, "what began as a small fire turned into a conflagration on Monday night" after the Taoiseach said goodbye to the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, at Government Buildings where they had had dinner together.

Mr Ahern's handlers clearly did not wish him to take questions on the Sheedy controversy from waiting reporters but the Taoiseach was not at all retiring. Asked why he had not responded to the Tanaiste's request to put the matter into the Dail record, Mr Ahern responded: "I don't think Mary Harney did that."

He went on: "I am not going to get into that. I read very interesting comment about what I was asked to do. I will talk to Mary Harney about what I was asked to do. I know what I was asked to do. What Mary Harney wanted was [that] I should put this into the public domain."

It was this comment that left the PDs fuming, plus Mr Ahern's observation that the Dail would go "its usual ballistic self" if he had told TDs of his role. "He was challenging the fact that she had ever said to him that he should go into the Dail with this information. She thought he was going to do this on Wednesday, April 28th," one PD source explained.

On Monday night Ms Harney had arranged to dine with American businessmen, some IDA figures and the Minister for Tourism and Sport, Jim McDaid, in Letterkenny. During dinner she was told by the deputy Government press secretary, John Murray, by telephone about the RTE report of the Taoiseach's replies to journalists in Dublin. Other party figures called up reporters to find out precisely the context of his remarks and reported back to her.

Up to that point, Ms Harney was having to cope with opposition - and internal criticism - over the fact that she had known about Mr Ahern's sin of omission but had done nothing about it. However, after his remarks on the steps of Government Buildings, the junior partners seized on his implication that she had not actually stipulated he should state his involvement "in the Dail".

Sources said Mr Ahern was "putting a new slant" on the "advice" that she had twice put to him. He would have to apologise for "insinuating she lied".

The next morning, Tuesday, Ms Harney awoke to newspaper headlines which reinforced the impression created in the Taoiseach's interviews of the previous night. She and Dr McDaid travelled to Derry for the inaugural flight of Ryanair to the city. They met the Northern Secretary, Mo Mowlam, who was aware of the growing crisis in Dublin.

Still there was no communication between the Taoiseach and Tanaiste and she and Dr McDaid flew back to Baldonnell and drove into the Department buildings they share in Kildare Street.

Ms Harney and the PDs were holed up in her office refusing callers. In the early afternoon, she was joined by her former leader, Des O'Malley, Bobby Molloy, Liz O'Donnell and Senators Helen Keogh and Jim Gibbons.

Outside, the media waited in vain. Was the Government safe? In the event, Mr Ahern got his abject apology out in time for the nine o'clock news. Ms Harney was satisfied - the Government survived.

But for how long?