The spirit of Bertie lives on in Paschal

BERTIE Ahern is gone from the scene in Dublin Central, but his spirit is alive and well in Paschal Donohoe, who occupies the same constituency.

Donohoe has unassumingly emerged as a heavyhitter in Fine Gael and is now even regarded as something of a kingmaker in the party’s leadership process, in which he is backing Leo Varadkar.

Regardless of who becomes Taoiseach, he is a dead cert for inclusion in the next Cabinet, most likely as the Finance Minister replacing Michael Noonan, who will depart from the frontranks with Enda Kenny in the coming weeks.

Donohoe can guarantee his new leader he won’t cause him any problems anyway. In an Ahernesque way, he knows the key to a quiet life is to sign up the unions to a deal. He’ll offer a safe pair of hands and duck away from difficulties.

After giving in to the gardaí in their pay dispute, Donohoe is now turning his attentions to the wider public sector with talks on a new agreement.

For a man with a talent for very politely saying nothing, his comments that the report of the Public Sector Pay Commission was “not an ATM” spoke volumes about what is now on the table for public sector workers.

In the fine tradition of the civil service, Donohoe got exactly what he needed for a quiet life from the report, avoiding contentious issues on reform and permanence.

Donohoe talks about the sustainability of the public sector pension bill and says talks will be exceptionally difficult. Here’s a prediction: the deal will see the pension levy largely retained and easily covered by pay hikes.

Contrary to his mild-mannered demeanour, Donohoe is shaping up be the most skilful, most cunning, most devious of them all in Fine Gael. The new Bertie can take a bow.