Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has given the clearest signal yet that Tánaiste Brian Cowen will replace him as leader of Fianna Fáil and taoiseach during the course of the current Dáil, though possibly not until near the next general election.
Asked if Mr Cowen is as obvious a successor to him as Seán Lemass was to Eamon de Valera, Mr Ahern said: "I think that's fair enough. I mean I could give you a lot of political answers about this one, but I'm not going to go down that road.
"Brian Cowen and I have been friends since the mid-80s. We've worked together, he's a brilliant mind and he's a great colleague . . . He has a vast amount of experience and is still not much beyond his mid-40s.
"He is a hugely experienced politician . . . obviously the party will ultimately decide, but [ from] my point of view he is the obvious successor to me in five years' time or whenever," he told RTÉ Radio's News At One.
Asked when he would step down, Mr Ahern said he intended to remain on beyond the mid-term Cabinet reshuffle he promised in his speech to the Dáil following his election as Taoiseach: "The answer to that question is [ clear] today, it is 2012.
"My intention is, of today, is to stay in this job and give my energies as I promised to myself all along, that I'd stay till the end of the term. That's my plan," he told RTÉ's Seán O'Rourke.
Questioned about his decision not to promote any new faces from within Fianna Fáil, the Taoiseach said he could have picked another "12 Fianna Fáil ministers" who would "competently and capably" fill the roles.
He said he could pick 35 people to become ministers of state: "And that's leaving out some of the young people who are just in. There [ are] a huge amount of people around with ability, I think that's the great thing for Fianna Fáil."
With 22 new Fianna Fáil TDs, "there's a government in the making in the future, in five years, in 10 years, in 15 years' time," he said, though some older Cabinet members were nearing "the end and their swansong. Others will be there for years to come. But that's the way you have to do it. You need the balance of experience, ideas, cool heads, ability and new people. And I've always tried to do that.
"Half the people are in different offices, so that's a new challenge. While you might have been at the ministerial table, to go into a new department and change is a new task and puts a lot of pressure on people," he said.
Rejecting predictions that the Government would be riven with inter-party divisions, Mr Ahern said: "Once we sit around that table we're there in constitutional positions, working for and with the Irish people.
"We're not there as individual parties. Of course we have our party philosophies and ideals, but we're there in a collective responsibility, working to a programme for government that we've negotiated, working for the Irish people.
"It's not about Fianna Fáil, or the Greens. The reason is, to be frank with you, that I successfully brought through governments to their full constitutional length, is because I insist on that," he told the programme.
"There are always differences. But people have to be mature enough to understand that they work for solutions. And I've always insisted on that. It's not a rancorous thing."
Welcoming the Greens into Government, Mr Ahern said they had put 20 years of research into their environmental and transport policies: "I think we did our best to take these issues on board. It's now about implementing that over the years ahead."
He downplayed the claims of the Independent TDs who have signed up to support the Government that they have secured concessions for their constituencies worth tens, or hundreds of millions of euro.
Independent Kerry South TD, Jackie Healy-Rae, "cleverly takes the programme for government" and then adds "a few small things, which are mainly roads with Jackie, roads in south Kerry.
"If anyone wants to see what the policy issues are, I think if you take out the National Development, you'll find practically them all," he said, adding that Tipperary North's Michael Lowry negotiated in a similar fashion.
Mr Ahern was also asked for his reaction to the editorial in yesterday's Irish Times which referred to his "awesome" achievement in securing a third successive term as Taoiseach.
"I appreciate it, I mean The Irish Timesis a very top quality paper, and it [ has a] long, long tradition, and I don't think you've heard me ever give out about them when they have goes at me," he said. "And obviously I'm pleased when they say a few nice things too."