Few people have nasty things to say about David Andrews. He is polished and avuncular, without a hint of dishonesty. The man who has represented Dun Laoghaire for 33 years in the Dail is well liked by his colleagues, as a decent - if lazy - politician.
He has been blessed in two regards: a physical presence which voters automatically admire and a name which, at election time, always heads the ballot paper.
Politics has not been particularly kind to Mr Andrews, even if getting elected has never posed a serious problem. Early promise of a sparkling political career as the son of "Tod" Andrews was blighted by his opposition to Charlie Haughey during a succession of Dail "heaves" spanning a 13-year period. Having served as a junior minister in his early career, his support for George Colley as party leader meant spending many arid years on the back benches. It wasn't until Albert Reynolds became Taoiseach in 1992, having been nominated for that position by Mr Andrews, that he secured cabinet rank and the plum portfolio of Foreign Affairs. He was in his element, particularly when he visited Somalia to alert the world about the famine there. He looked and behaved as a concerned and cultivated politician.
But where detail and tough negotiations were concerned he took a back seat. It was Padraig Flynn who dominated discussions in Strand Two negotiations involving the Northern Ireland parties.
A year later, Mr Andrews was moved to Defence, a position he disparagingly described as the "Ministry for Fish and Ships", to make way for the ambitions of the Labour Party leader, Mr Dick Spring, in the new Fianna Fail/Labour Party government.
When Fianna Fail returned to Government with the Progressive Democrats in 1997, Mr Andrews expected to resume his role at Foreign Affairs. In the event, he was first offered the European section of the Department under the overall command of Ray Burke, before that, too, was withdrawn, in some confusion, by Mr Ahern.
When Mr Burke resigned over allegations of improper political payments, Mr Andrews was appointed Minister. But, as the Northern talks gathered pace, it was his Minister of State, Liz O'Donnell, who immersed herself in the details.
In spite of this rather aloof, magisterial approach, Mr Andrews was quickly mired in controversy. Over the course of a few short months he infuriated unionist politicians by first commenting that there would be no change in Articles 2 and 3 and then declaring that North-South bodies would have "executive powers, not unlike a government".
Ken Maginnis of the Ulster Unionist Party felt at the time that the Minister was "prone to careless outbursts that give offence, particularly to those who don't know him very well and don't know that underlying that person is a basically decent man."
Others were less understanding. Within his own Department, he was regarded as damaged goods.
Earlier this year Mr Andrews became embroiled in the controversy within his Department which is now becoming public. He took a role in the appointment of personnel to various positions.
In the continuing war between himself and the leading civil servant in his Department, Mr Padraic MacKernan, Mr Andrews appeared to suggest in the Dail yesterday that if the Department wasn't big enough for the two of them, Mr MacKernan knew where the door was.