BERTIE AHERN is right to resent John Bruton's stealing of Fianna Fail clothes. After all, the last three national wage deals - which brought about our economic boom and bloom - were negotiated by Fianna Fail ministers.

Now the Labour Party and Ruairi Quinn have moved centre-stage, and the Rainbow Coalition is doing everything possible to supplant Fianna Fail in the hearts and minds of the social partners.

It is a seismic change. No longer can Fianna Fail boast it is the only party capable of providing industrial peace. Gone are the days when Fine Gael paraded as the party of Right-thinking economists and John Bruton opposed national agreements as wasteful and damaging to the States interests.

Power is a wonderful stimulant. It allows politicians to embrace new realities in government. In 1989, the Progressive Democrats swallowed a distaste for national pay agreements when it shared power with Fianna Fail. And Mr Bruton became a convert on entering Government with Labour and Democratic Left.

Not only that. He and his Government have since developed a German-style consensus model of economic progress and turned their backs on the British/US adversarial system.

The success of the Coalition parties in negotiating a new three-year wage deal was a vital element in their pre-election strategy. Without it, the Government would have been open to charges of incompetence and a lack of economic vision. But, with the social partners in the bag, Mr Bruton, Mr Spring and Mr De Rossa could ask for another mandate to lead the State. Mr Quinn gave them that opportunity when he first sought - and then abandoned - a public service wage freeze in 1997.

The nature of the Partnership 2000 document reflects the political ambitions involved. The objectives are identified as "the development of an efficient modern economy capable of high and sustainable economic and employment growth... ensuring that Irish society becomes more inclusive that long-term unemployment is substantially reduced and that the benefits of growth are more equally distributed."

It reads like an election manifesto and in many ways it is. Bosses, trade unionists, farmers and the unemployed are all committed (with the Coalition Government) to the creation of a wealthier and more successful society in which the fruits of growth are more evenly spread.

It is such a powerful and appealing package that the opposition parties have backed off. In that regard, the conversion of the Progressive Democrats has been the most spectacular.

Two months ago, at his party conference, Michael McDowell excoriated arrangements which "channel economic growth into wasteful public spending". The Progressive Democrats wanted "a new, inclusive enterprising consensus instead of the present failed consensus where the biggest snouts get closest to the trough and devour the hopes and prospects of an entire generation."

Last Monday, with the deal done, Mr McDowell sang a different tune. In government, he said, the PDs would be prepared "to honour the central elements of the Partnership 2000 deal."

Implementation of those elements over three years would involve the provision of £900 million in Government tax cuts; £5 25 million in a social welfare inclusion programme; £100 million in business tax refunds; and something less than £100 million in farm reliefs.

The programme effectively ties the hands of any incoming government on tax and social reform. It also promises to hold the general Government spending deficit to 1.5 per cent of national output, as against the 3 per cent sought by Maastricht.

Those terms would make it impossible for the PDs to deliver on two tax rates of 40 and 20 per cent in the life of the next government.

And Mr Ahern has already moved to assert himself against his putative partner. Before Christmas, when Mary Harney spoke of privatising £2 billion worth of State companies, the Fianna Fail leader demurred. The party would not adopt the policies of the "New Right", he said, and he promised to consult the social partners before any State companies were sold.

AT THE same time, Fianna Fail - the champion of national agreements - engaged in some desultory criticisms of the increase in public service pay. But with an election pending there was no future in antagonising such a powerful vested interest.

Consensus and partnership will be the mantra for 1997. And Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left will be leading the chant. Challenge within the trade union movement to the new, German-style model of national agreements is coming mainly from nurses and teachers, with prison officers keeping an eye on the main chance. On the employers' side, ISME, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises association, argues for corporation tax cuts and cuts in public service pay.

The Government is anxious to resolve the nurses' dispute. But it fears that other groups could use this special case to bolster their own claims. Because of that, it will seek to ring-fence negotiations so as to defend the State against knock-on claims.

As Mr Bruton said when he launched the programme yesterday: strikes are not the way to remedy grievances. Regard must be had for public finances. And a bridge must be built between the unemployed and the excluded into the world of work.

As for the most frequently voiced criticisms of the deal - that the public pay element is too large and that it is predicated on continuing high growth - Mr Bruton was blunt. Partnership terms depended on continuing strong growth. If they prevented us from implementing the Maastricht criteria and the EU Stability and Growth Pact, then they would be renegotiated.

There is still no such thing as a free lunch.