The unsuccessful libel action against the Star newspaper by the Government Press Secretary, Ms Mandy Johnston, is a significant setback in a career marked by her rapid ascent within Fianna Fáil, writes Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter
Aged 31, she is the youngest person to hold the job and the first female to do so. While many previous holders of the post have come from the worlds of journalism or the Civil Service, she is a party woman.
The appointment is in the gift of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, indicating that her style of work found favour at the highest level of the Government.
It is she who is responsible for the overall media and communications strategy of a Coalition which has struggled to regain lost confidence after the wave of bad publicity over spending cutbacks which followed its re-election.
Senior observers in Government circles last night questioned Ms Johnston's judgment in pursuing her libel action for eight years. It was suggested that she would not have been appointed press secretary if the Government perceived her to have been damaged by the Star article.
Ms Johnston is the official spokeswoman for Mr Ahern and his Government. Such a position requires tact and the capacity to speak with authority and nuance on a vast range of topics. It is intrinsically political.
However, if the post demands that Ms Johnston speak with the voice of the Taoiseach, the two differ in their attitude to the law on libel.
As if by chance, events on the floor of the Dáil yesterday offered a striking insight into this contrast. News of the decision in Ms Johnston's case emerged as Mr Ahern said that he would not be taking any action against the Sunday Independent over its report alleging that he had obstructed the planning tribunal.
"I have never sued a newspaper in my 27 years in this House and I do not intend to do so now," Mr Ahern said.
Ms Johnston sued over an article in the Star which appeared soon after her appointment to the Fianna Fáil press office in 1996.
In court, she said that the article by Mr John Donlon and an accompanying photograph of the call-girl Christine Keeler had defamed her by suggesting that she was a person of "low moral calibre". The jury disagreed.
Fianna Fáil was in opposition at the start of Ms Johnston's career in politics. When the party returned to power with the PDs in 1997, she was appointed press adviser to the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
In that role, she relayed news of the booming Irish economy while managing the public image of a minister who prefers doing his own thing to following the ideas of advisers.
If Ms Johnston can be charming in her dealings with journalists, she can be abrasive as well. In the sometimes conflictual atmosphere of reporters' dealings with the Government press apparatus, some journalists find her antagonistic.
She said yesterday that she was looking forward to getting back to work.