When will Bertie go?

[tic tac man]

We've had all the arguments about the rights and wrongs elsewhere. Let's leave that aside in this thread.

What we do know is that one way or another he's going to leave office sometime in the next few years. Let's all - supporters and opponents alike- try to name the actual date.

We can resurrect the thread when the time comes. Nearest to the right answer wins the grudging admiration of the rest of us...

For myself, I think he'll stagger on for a while yet but that the mounting damage will have to be dealt with by the summer. I'm going for:

April 17th (2008)

[rockofcashel]

How many more of these threads ?

[Dillinger]

It's too hard to say, this is the land where the "cute hoore" is king, anywhere else and he would have stepped down already.

[tic tac man]

How many more of these threads ?

I've seen plenty of arguments, but nothing the same as this. View it more as a game for anoraks than more debate.

[EvotingMachine0197]

I'm an optimist, so 12th March 2008. Around tea-time.

[hiding behind a poster]

I'm an optimist, so 12th March 2008. Around tea-time.

Well that's my birthday, so I hope you're right. What a present that would be!

[grainne whale]

Would, he not wait until 1st April.

[FFKev]

As a supporter, it gives me no pleasure to say it, but I don't think he'll be there for the publication of the next tribunal report. That's due in about eighteen months so I'd say early next year. January 2009.

[Mariella Froster]

He'll cling on for as long as possible no matter what damage it does to FF, politics or the country - the man is clearly pathological. He won't go until he is forced to so its a question of how long his colleagues will tolerate him and when or how they get their act together to see him off. The other factor is the vested interests behind Bertie Ahern - his successors need to keep them sweet too. Ahern's prevarication at the tribunal is as likely to be as much to cover up for some of them as for himself.

I reckon he will go when the economy starts to picks up - second quarter of 2009 I reckon.