BRIAN Cowen will be elected taoiseach (prime minister) of the Irish Republic sometime in early May. His accession to the top job is no surprise, even if the timing is. The Offaly native, 48 and first ever taoiseach from that county, has performed well in a series of ministries and certainly has enough experience under his belt to tackle the job.

He first came into the Dail (Parliament) in 1984 on the death of his father, also a TD (member of parliament) when he won his dad's seat.

Cowen soon went on to impress the party elders and won successive cabinet posts where he proved himself an able and skilled minister.

As foreign minister from 2000-2004 he had major involvement in the Northern Ireland brief at a critical time. He also became well known then in Irish America from his many visits over here.

Cowen came to be highly regarded for his no nonsense, direct style which went down well in America. His grasp of Northern Ireland was also considered as good as his party leader Bertie Ahern.

It was known that Cowen was going to be Ahern's successor for some time. He is personally very popular among the grassroots of the party and fits well into the mould of a Fianna Fail leader.

It is not surprising that Fianna Fail has become the natural party of power in Ireland. It is a formidable machine that would match up to Tammany Hall or any other of the great Irish American political machines of the 19th century.

If the Irish do politics better than anyone else in the world, then Fianna Fail does politics better in Ireland than anyone else. Their choice of Cowen, a man who has paid his dues, is popular with the grassroots, and knows how to wrong-foot the opposition is utterly predictable.

Cowen is not being dealt an easy hand, however. The glory days of peace parlays in Northern Ireland and the Celtic Tiger roaring in the Irish Republic are now gone.

His own party after years of economic smooth sailing suddenly finds itself facing a series of storms. Unemployment is suddenly spiking. Home prices are plummeting. The international outlook is grim, and consumer confidence is suddenly nose-diving.

There is also the fact that Cowen's party is under a cloud with several members named in corruption allegations over the past few years. He needs to act quickly to ensure that political corruption is addressed in a very transparent way.

The North is almost there, and Cowen will merely need to maintain a steady hand on the tiller as the ship sails on. The heavy lifting has been done, and the issues of policing and devolvement of justice powers remain the major priorities.

On the economy, Cowen has to manage expectations which have become completely out of proportion in recent years. Those who expected double digit growth into the foreseeable future suddenly have to cope with the new reality that the Irish economy is coming back down to earth.

Business Week magazine recently headlined a cover story "Ireland's Luck Is Running Out," and spoke about housing bubbles, higher inflation, euro/dollar rates of exchange that are hurting Irish exports and a general malaise as the economy slows down.

Cowen will likely be measured on how he performs on the economy, especially now as it eases from its record pace of growth. He has given every appearance that he can handle it, being successful in pretty much every job he has tried in government.

Now he is in the big leagues, though. We wish him well.