The post-election rumblings within Fianna Fáil are over, the GovernmentChief Whip, Mary Hanafin, tells Mark Hennessy, Political Reporter.
In the hours before the Cabinet was announced last May, Dún Laoghaire TD Ms Mary Hanafin was confidently predicted by many as being a certainty for a full place at the Cabinet.
Instead, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, made her his Government Chief Whip. The disappointment was etched on her face, even if she prefers not to be reminded of it now. However, she has come to grips with the Chief Whip's thankless role. "If you had told me five years ago that I would be whip by now, I would have told you that you were mad."
But, yes, her expectations had been raised both because of Fianna Fáil's two-seat Dún Laoghaire success and the media.
"We know now that the media doesn't know anything about these things, but if I had taken a step back and taken a rain check, I would have realised that I did not have an entitlement to anything - no entitlement after just five years and two years a junior."
The job is not "a barrel of laughs", she admits. "Every time there is a vote your heart takes a tumble, but for all that there is variety in it. And I am enjoying it.
"In many ways, it is great to be a minister when you don't have the money to spend or you don't have the cuts to make. You're not faced with the difficulties and yet have the chance to be part of it."
In the last administration, Séamus Brennan performed a near-heroic role as Chief Whip, managing to keep the pro-government TDs such as Jackie Healy-Rae on side, for a price. With a clear majority, his successor's task is easier, but success breeds problems. "Because we have a majority, people will take risks that they would never dream of doing before and say, 'sure she won't miss me'.
"But I'm afraid that one of these days we could get caught out. They judge on past experience that there won't be a vote on this, but we are dealing with a very different Opposition," she says.
The different make-up of the 29th Dáil and with the Greens, Sinn Fein and most Independent deputies in a new grouping, means the rule book has been thrown out of the window. Put simply, Fine Gael, she believes, is still in "a state of chassis" since the election.
"They haven't, I think, got their act together at all yet. They are looking for a direction. Their energies will probably go into the local elections which is their next big test, but you can sense the sniping going across between Fine Gael and Labour.
"There is terrible animosity between Labour and Sinn Féin causing great sparks. Very often, the Government can sit back and almost laugh at what is going on around us."
The Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, is not having such a good time. "I am very fond of Enda. He is a really decent fellow, but he hasn't, I think, landed any decent punches on the Taoiseach. At a time of difficult budgetary decisions you would think that the Opposition would do so. I think his skill will be on a local level, but it is not going to be in the Dáil."
The Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, is another matter. "He is making more of an impact. His party seems to be whipped together. I am not sure that it is getting much publicity outside, but it is showing co-ordination."
The relationship between the Greens and Sinn Féin amuses her, particularly since the two have fallen out in a bitter row about the share-out of three precious extra offices. For her, Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins has benefited most from the technical group. "Joe has a five-year run on them. He has benefited in being identified as a third leader of that group."
Already, some Fianna Fáil TDs complain that the job has brought out characteristics Ms Hanafin last showed in her teaching days in Sion Hill convent school in Blackrock, Dublin. There are a few persistent vote-dodgers, but she is too polite and cute to identify them.
"There are a couple that I know won't be there. They will also have a good reason. I think at this stage as whip, I have heard of all of the excuses as to why somebody won't be here or can't be here," she says, with both a smile and a sigh.
However, the Dáil from a chief whip's vantage point is not the House of the Commons, where the Chief Whip has enough power to terrify even seasoned backbenchers.
"The cynics would say you should never make a woman whip because a woman would know everything and women talk. You do know a lot about people's personal lives. Yes, you tend to get personal information, but it is only to determine whether you can excuse people. Because our voting system is so tight, it doesn't involve bargaining or barter, so it's different from the Commons."
The post-election rumblings within Fianna Fáil are over, she confidently believes. The mistakes made in its aftermath were "absolutely excusable" as ministers settled into new briefs.
Backbenchers, she acknowledges, were ignored. "Now they are being snowed under with information. Certainly, that issue has not arisen in the last couple of months."
Chairing the Government's legislation committee, Ms Hanafin may not be able to produce policies of her own, but she can influence when the policies of others reach the statute books.
"Sometimes, you find that what is a priority for the department is not a Programme for Government priority or even for the Minister," she says, with a knowing smile.
Life for TDs is changing. The dual mandate is going by 2004. The Oireachtas committees, she believes, will offer them the opportunity to make a real legislative input. "I just had 2½ years as a backbencher and it was all so new and exciting that I did not have time to get frustrated, but I could sense how a backbencher for 10 years would question things."
In time, TDs could get a researcher. In the eyes of opponents, researchers will simply be used as a second constituency secretary to add to the flow of constituency representations. However, Ms Hanafin disagrees.
"The input of TDs into legislation is based on what they know is happening on the ground. Lawyers get theirs from their practice, from case law. We get ours from constituencies."