McDowell assessmentThe departure of Michael McDowell from public life is a significant event in the political life of this country.
Not only was he one of the most colourful figures on the political stage over the past two decades, he also played a hugely influential role in shaping the kind of country and the kind of economy that we have today.
His role in founding the Progressive Democrats was critical. While the party drew its inspiration from its first leader, Des O'Malley, it was McDowell who provided it with the hard edge of distinctive economic policies based on the fundamental principle of cutting taxes on work.
The early policies of the Progressive Democrats were roundly denounced by all the other parties but they were implemented in the three coalitions with Fianna Fáil and by now have become the economic orthodoxy.
It was said of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher that her great achievement was not that she changed the Conservative Party but that she changed the Labour Party.
The commitment made by Labour leader Pat Rabbitte at his party conference in the spring to reduce the lower rate of tax to 18 per cent was an acknowledgement of just how much McDowell and his colleagues had changed the political climate in Ireland since the foundation of the PDs in 1985.
It is ironic that some months later the Progressive Democrats were almost wiped out.
Rabbitte paid tribute at the weekend to his fallen opponent, paying due respect to Mr McDowell's commitment to serving the public good, even though the Tánaiste's ideas differed very much from his own.
It was a generous tribute from one political heavyweight to another and it contrasted with the glee in some quarters at his defeat.
McDowell has had a chequered career in electoral politics precisely because of his forthrightness and his intelligence. It is not a combination of qualities that tends to prove attractive to Irish voters.
It was probably no coincidence that another ideological politician from the other end of the spectrum, Joe Higgins, also lost his seat.
As well as providing the PDs' ideological driving force, McDowell had a wide range of achievements to his credit as minister for justice.
One of his unsung achievements was the lone but successful battle he fought in the long-running peace process negotiations to ensure that paramilitary criminality would have to be brought to an end.
If it had not been for him, the British government would have turned a blind eye to republican and loyalist organised crime in return for a political settlement.
McDowell was having none of it and he insisted that democratic standards in Ireland would not be sacrificed on the altar of British expediency.
As minister he also took on the task of reforming the gardaí and he will leave office having put in place new structures that will leave it a far more professional and respected force. He also took on the prison officers and was the first minister in decades to face up to the problems besetting the prisons.
One issue on which he was wildly misrepresented was immigration. He pushed through a constitutional change to close a loophole that had put the Irish maternity services under severe pressure and was actually fuelling racist resentment.
While many liberals criticised him strongly, the amendment was passed with the support of 80 per cent of the voters and during the election his political opponents accepted the necessity for his action in the first place.
His political stance provoked opponents and often caused problems for himself. He was outmanoeuvred by Fianna Fáil on café bars and his efforts to clamp down on the burgeoning casino industry. His handling of the Ahern payments controversy both in October and during the election was also erratic.
However, it was his attempt to come to terms with the issue, rather than pretend that it did not exist, that led him into difficulty.
In many ways, though, McDowell was useful to Fianna Fáil in that he deflected public anger away from his cabinet colleagues. No Fianna Fáil minister would have done what he did in justice but they were happy to see him take on the vested interests and suffer the backlash.
Mr McDowell's style and his ideas naturally provoked a strong reaction from those who genuinely differed from him in politics but across the political divide this weekend there was a general acknowledgement that the Dáil will be a poorer place without him.