Bertie battles with Hill Street blues as he meets music critic

The Taoiseach was opening a family resource centre at Hill Street in north inner Dublin and he seemed determined to be cheerful.

The day after yet another Fianna Fail TD was expelled from the parliamentary party, it wouldn't do to be caught frowning and tempt a "Hill Street Blues" headline.

"Yesterday is yesterday," he said when asked about the Beverley Cooper-Flynn vote. "I have nothing to add to what the party officers said."

But at an event which showcased the Government's efforts to combat social exclusion, the plight of the growing number of marginalised Fianna Fail backbenchers cast a shadow.

Mr Ahern was flanked by fellow northside TD Tony Gregory at the opening of the centre, one of the fruits of the Integrated Services Process (ISP) which is targeting deprivation in four urban areas.

The independent deputy didn't get to make a speech, but he must have been reflecting on the latest revision of Dail arithmetic, and wondering if a second "Gregory deal" could be in the offing.

Yesterday's event also marked the publication of a directory of services in the ISP area, the culmination of 18 months' painstaking work. One speaker compared the project with the English Grand National: "A lot of people started out, but there are only a couple of us left."

The Taoiseach smiled like a man who knew the feeling. Still 10 lengths clear in the opinion polls, he must be worried about the heavy going, and the party's excessive use of the whip.

Yet it was a relaxed Mr Ahern who stopped to talk to children outside the centre, where somebody mentioned Westlife. Perhaps unaware of the Taoiseach's link, via his daughter, with Westlife, one young boy said a rude word about the band, a word that rhymes with "bankers".

In the wake of the Cooper-Flynn case, it might have been more embarrassing if he had said bankers. Either way, Mr Ahern laughed it off.