The leadership contest was good for Fine Gael. It forced the party into the centre of the political stage, allowed the public take a closer look at the party than many have done before, but most of all it forced members of the parliamentary party to face tough questions about the nature of the party, its identity and its role in Irish politics.
There are three immediate tasks facing Michael Noonan. Two of them are clear and achievable. The third, that of redefining the party's role, will be the real test of his leadership.
The first task will be that of restoring party unity. The past few weeks have been bruising, but politics is not like academic life where a grievance can be nursed for decades; it is about next business, new alliances and getting on with the task in hand.
Michael Noonan is well placed to be a unifying force and his best start will be to ensure there is no score settling, that he picks people on merit - of which he is the judge - and that he can find useful work for those not on his front bench.
Michael Noonan's personality will help the unifying process. He knows his colleagues in a very personal way and knows that a quiet word of encouragement and concern can help in dealing with bruised egos.
He will probably get one chance to be Taoiseach. He cannot afford to have an alternative leadership in the waiting. If he is to succeed, he needs a united party fully behind him. His ability to shape and maintain that unity will be his first big task.
His second task will be to put the fundamentals of organisation into place. Under John Bruton a great deal of this work has been done. Opinion polls taken by all parties, and by none, confirm that in areas where Fine Gael has good candidates and good organisation the party vote runs way ahead of the national figure and it will hold or gain seats.
The problem for Michael Noonan, as it was for John Bruton, is that handful of constituencies which have stubbornly resisted all attempts at reorganisation and revitalisation.
If Fine Gael can hold two out of three seats - as it will - in West Limerick why can it not get even one seat a few miles down the road in South Kerry? Likewise if it can get two seats in Sligo-Leitrim why has it got no seat in Donegal North East? There are the urban problems too - in Dublin, Galway and Waterford in particular.
Michael Noonan promised a root-and-branch look at organisation. It is needed. He promised a major role for Jim Mitchell in Dublin. That too is welcome and essentially it will be Michael Noonan's capacity to get right the handful of serious organisational problems that may well determine the outcome of the next election.
But the biggest task facing Michael Noonan is the one highlighted by so many media commentators during the past few weeks - the reason for Fine Gael's existence, its political personality, its place in the political spectrum.
Many in Fine Gael feel that this question is unfair. Why is Fine Gael the only party constantly asked to justify its existence? Why is it asked what it stands for when it has enough policies to fill a warehouse and a comprehensive blueprint for the country, A Plan for the Nation, which very few of those who asked these questions have actually read?
Fine Gael people could reply that much of this questioning is based on outdated 1960s ideological thinking, long since discredited.
Others will say that the party has stood the test of time, has been right on most of the major issues, that it embodies a sense of decency and moderation, it has led seven governments, maintained the loyalty of 25 per cent of the electorate which in a competitive PR situation is highly significant, and that it does the things parties do in parliamentary democracies the world over - produce candidates, provide policies, offer an alternative government, relate to the ordinary people and engage in shaping public policy both national and local.
That, however, is not enough. Michael Noonan can have all the policies he likes but if he is not seen to offer leadership, provide a hard cutting edge, such as Dick Spring or Garret FitzGerald did, he will make no impact.
Any such effort must be grounded in reality. It must deal with the everyday issues of ordinary people and must embody a withering contempt for the efforts of the Government combined with a sense that he can make things better, that Fine Gael does make a difference.
But it is more than the everyday issues. Sleaze and standards are vitally important. The current corporate funding of political parties is wrong. The issues of public funding must be addressed.
These are issues on which Michael Noonan has to go for broke or he will not be listened to. In the process he has to shape a distinctive Fine Gael message. He has to identify the key areas where Fine Gael is different and makes a difference. It is not easy in a competitive consensus world to do this. But that is the task he faces.
He does not need more research. He should forget about focus groups. He can put a hold on policy development. What he needs to do is kick the sleeping Leviathan of a Fine Gael into debating these issues, start a real debate within the parliamentary party, but most of all draw on his own experience, his own convictions in shaping his message.
There is no guarantee of success. Michael Noonan is a good communicator with a capacity to put complex concepts into easily understandable language. His task is to put the Fine Gael policy and philosophy into such language so that, at the very least, the people whose attention and support he is attempting to attract are engaged in the debate.