Drapier has felt for some time that the asylum seekers issue was one that would not easily go away, but more than that it is an issue that will test us all, and on past form may well find us wanting.
For that reason Drapier takes seriously the current spat between Liz O'Donnell and John O'Donoghue. This is not a handler-manufactured disagreement designed to show one party or other in a distinctive light, but a fairly fundamental difference which cuts deep and has the potential to turn nasty.
Drapier is on Liz O'Donnell's side. He feels that our history, our prosperity, our membership of the wider world and our much vaunted proclamation of civilised values obliges us to be generous and humane on this issue. It does not oblige us to be foolish, to open any so-called floodgates, and most emphatically, it does not oblige us to dump the problem on those in inner Dublin least capable of shouldering it. Nor does it oblige us to treat gangsters and crooks masquerading as refugees as other than they are. But Drapier, like other politicians, has met many of the current wave of asylum seekers. He has one friend in particular, a genuine political refugee from Sierra Leone, who has been here four years, has found himself sent from pillar to post and was only recently given permission to work legally while he awaits some sort of permanent status. The fact is that this man wanted to work and was capable of working, but was not legally allowed to do so. He is only one of many who have a contribution to make and would love the chance to make it. Like many, he has the potential to enrich our society just as Irish people have enriched the societies in which they have settled.
Drapier is not for one moment casting John O'Donoghue in the mould of some redneck reactionary on this issue. John O'Donoghue is a decent, humane man with generous instincts. His problem is that he sits in the Department of Justice and, whatever it is about that Department, it seems to entrap its Ministers inside a defensive and negative view of the world. Drapier read in some political novel recently a description of official attitudes towards "foreigners" - "born suspicious, lived suspicious and would die suspicious" - and to a certain extent that sums up the prevailing attitude. Or, as he read in another book the other day - a description of a major political figure of the past: "He was a believer in original sin, he had a poor view of human nature and a pessimistic outlook on the world."
Well, Justice is much the same, and often with good reason. The view of the world as seen from that Department and, knowing what the people in there often know, does tend to give one a jaundiced and unflattering view of human nature. That said, Drapier thinks that on this issue Liz O'Donnell is right, both on the practicalities and the politics. And, while there is still time, Drapier would urge John O'Donoghue to have another look and ask Bertie Ahern to raise his eyes above the needs of the north inner city on this issue.
Meanwhile, in passing, let Drapier mention Liz O'Donnell. In opposition she was tough and sometimes ruthless. She made enemies and, just as there were many waiting in the long grass for John O'Donoghue, so too were people waiting to settle some scores with Liz. Had she been assigned to a Department such as Health or Justice there would have been no mercy and we would have had daily bloodletting, just as John O'Donoghue is now experiencing.
But Liz is a lucky politician. Foreign Affairs and Northern Ireland gave her a high profile with little day-to-day accountability to the Dail. She seized her opportunity with both hands and after a shaky start developed into one of the real successes of the Good Friday talks. The professionals in Foreign Affairs, generally a sniffy lot, speak highly of her. Getting back to the refugee issue, Drapier suggests to people in government not to underestimate Liz on this. She is a genuinely serious politician, and on this question - the right of asylum seekers to work - she is totally serious. Liz is not given to grand gestures; if anything her style is understated, but there is a hard core of principle and anybody who ignores her, or takes her for granted, does so at their peril. And as Drapier never tires of saying, it is the smaller issues that generally do most damage to governments. This could well be one such. Meanwhile, plenty of other things were happening this week. Drapier has to applaud Des O'Malley for his courage in grasping the NATO nettle. NATO is one of the no-go topics in here but O'Malley, with characteristic common sense, forced it to the top of the Foreign Affairs Committee agenda on Wednesday and even went so far as to invite in a NATO man to show his wares.
It was, as it turned out, a good discussion. Drapier made his own modest contribution, but he was pleased to note that both Ben Briscoe and Gay Mitchell were prepared to push the debate on from the Cold War era and away from the pietistic platitudes that have substituted for hard facts in defence policy debates up to now.
Anyway, as things now stand Dessie O'Malley is shaping up to being the best leader of the opposition we've got. And he is enjoying it, even if his partners in Government are less than gruntled.
Drapier has no doubt that in the row with the Olympic Council of Ireland Jim McDaid is in the right. Both Jim McDaid and Bernard Allen went out of their way to rationalise the structure of sports funding but came up against a major vested interest in the OCI, a body which is no slouch when it comes to short-arm combat.
McDaid, with or without his yellow jersey, can be sure of one thing: on this issue he has all-party support.
Also this week, we had a spate of mayoral elections, and let Drapier congratulate Joe Doyle on becoming Dublin's first citizen. Joe is one of the great gentlemen of politics and ultimately it was his decency which got him the cross-party support needed to win.
