As the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy finalises his December 2nd Budget and continues to beat off supplicants, the man who assumes a huge role in our economy from January 1st is coming to Dublin to tell us what he thinks. As disclosed by Quidnunc last July, Wim Duisenberg, the allmighty president of the European Central Bank, will address the Institute of European Affairs on November 10th.
Duisenberg, the Dutch banker who emerged with the job from the famous 11-hour Brussels lunch, is likely to tell us to control the Celtic Tiger or it will devour us. He will warn of the dangers of overheating, of the consequent horror of inflation - an ECB obsession - of being out of step with the Euro trend and that if the criteria for EMU entry was being applied now, rather than on 1997 figures, we would be hard-put to qualify for the elite club.
Our main worry to date has been the effect on us of Britain's decision to opt out of monetary union for now. Otherwise we have ploughed ahead on our merry, successful way. Duisenberg and the prophets of doom gurus, tell us that we must stop and consider, that we can't have a giveaway budget which puts more money into the economy than it takes out (aka no more tax cuts and less expenditure) and that we must conform to common EU economic policy.
McCreevy and his mandarins are expected to tell the interfering Europeans that our Budget is none of their business, that we are unique in Europe as the Celtic Tiger is growing faster than other economies, that our labour force is expanding and so must the economy if we are to avoid high unemployment, and that a government must keep the voters happy. Anyway, the world economy is slowing down and that means we are slowing down too.
Believe it all if you will. Or maybe not. Remember the economics teacher who asked his pupils how they had done in their exam. Wonderful, they replied, the questions were exactly the same as those in the mock exam. Ah, said the teacher, the questions might be the same, but the answers have changed.
Sweet legal
Have our lawyers been getting a bad press? Have they noticed? Do they care? The answer to all three seems to be Yes. Last night, the chairman of the Bar Council, John MacMenamin SC, entertained selected members of the fourth estate at "a media reception" in the new Distillery Building behind the Four Courts. Hacks en route to the party expected to be bombarded with tales of how little barristers really earn.
The media isn't the only target of this blatant attempt to win friends and influence people. Not a little surprise was expressed at the former Bar Council chairman Frank Clarke SC offering, free of charge, to advise the members of the Dail Committee on Public Accounts on their own positions as they investigate murky goings-on. There could be conflicts of interest, he said, as thoughts turned to committee member Beverly CooperFlynn, who used to work for NIB. If one existed, they could be open to legal challenge. What conflict of interest? Well even shares in AIB might be relevant, not to mention the dreaded matter of an offshore account - past or present.
Members of the committee are: Jim Mitchell (FG), chair, FF's Sean Ardagh, Beverly Cooper-Flynn, John Dennehy, Sean Doherty, Denis Foley and Conor Lenihan; FG's Bernard Durkan and Padraig McCormack; DL's Pat Rabbitte and the new Independent, Michael Bell.
Foundation work
As political rivals battled it out in Cork South Central, members of the major parties sat down together at a conference in Dublin last week organised by the Washington-based National Endowment of Democracy with a view to setting up a similar foundation in Ireland to foster the development of democratic institutions worldwide.
The Americans included NED president, Carl Gershman and the man who could have been ambassador in the Phoenix Park, former trade union leader, Tom Donahoe. From this side of the Atlantic, there was the Tanaiste, Mary Harney, FF's Rory O'Hanlon, FG Senator Maurice Manning and former Labour minister of state, Joan Burton, who looked wonderfully trim and glamorous. There were letters of goodwill from President Bill Clinton and Senator George Mitchell. Clinton quoted W.B. Yeats who, when reflecting on Ireland's past and future said: "We are building up a nation which shall be moved by noble purposes to noble ends."
Discordant note
The President's State visit to Canada progressed through nine different overnight locations in 12 days without a sour note. When she left Canada a criticism surfaced - but it wasn't about her.
Mrs McAleese flew to Boston from Newfoundland to give the main address at The Irish Times/Harvard University Colloquium last Friday. The previous night she was guest of honour at a glitzy dinner at the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the dramatic modern building at the harbour housing the late president's library and memorabilia. Before the 400 guests - local worthies including politicians, academics, party workers, state and city officials and servants, and Irish visitors of a similar ilk - sat down to dinner, the President and her party were taken on an engrossing tour of the exhibition by Senator Edward Kennedy and his wife Victoria.
Senator Kennedy, in a rousing political speech, said his brother would have been proud of President McAleese's leadership and of how she had overcome so much. He spoke of her background in sectarian Belfast, of the burnings of houses, of the B Specials and of Boston being one-third Irish.
The President said she had been in tears when first in the library two years ago. President Kennedy's visit was the beginning of our self-confidence and turned us into a "can do" nation. "He had an incredible love for Ireland; he told us what we were capable of and what we were worth and he told it to my generation," she said.
It was after dinner that the sour note sounded. The entertainment was provided by a 14-year-old in a low-cut slinky evening gown belting out sexy songs. Many said they were shocked that a girl so young should be providing that sort of material to a late-night audience. Annie should have been more in her line, they opined. There was a quick exit once she finished.
Better than the real thing
John Hume hasn't stopped celebrating his Nobel Peace Prize win, with UUP leader, David Trimble, since last week's announcement. There were two highlights in Dublin, one planned and one spontaneous. On Saturday, the SDLP leader and his deputy, Seamus Mallon were at the SDLP fundraising dinner dance in the Burlington Hotel. Hume told his supporters, who included Minister Michael Woods and Rory O'Hanlon from FF, FG's Nora Owen and Labour leader, Ruairi Quinn, that in the dark days 20 years ago Dublin fundraisers had kept the party going and enabled it to fight elections. Film footage of Hume and Trimble at the Waterfront in Belfast together, with hands raised aloft by Bono, was also shown, and it was to Bono's house in Killiney the next day that Hume and his wife Pat went for an impromptu brunch party. Hume told those present, among them Neil Jordan, Paul McGuinness, Jim Sheridan, The Edge and Adam Clayton, over champagne and orange juice that he had been cynical of their world because it wasn't real, but Bono and U2 were real because of how much they had done for the North. The Waterfront concert, the politician told the pop star, had brought Trimble and himself together in a new type of venue and young people together with a feelgood factor. It was a short dynamic speech with talk of kindred spirits. He got a standing ovation and Bono said "Wow".
Too close to call
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, launched one major biography this week and he'll do another in 12 days' time. Lenihan; his Life and Loyalties by James Downey came out on Wednesday and Mary Robinson, the Authorised Biography by Helen Burke and Olivia O'Leary is set for November 5th.
Downey was asked by a son of the late Brian Lenihan, Dublin South West deputy, Conor, to undertake the work more than two years ago and he had the co-operation of the family. Nearly 100 people were interviewed - politicians, civil servants and journalists - yet the book cannot say whether Lenihan made that fateful 1982 phonecall to President Hillery at the Aras asking him not to dissolve the Dail. Reliable witnesses contradict each other and the man himself gave two different versions. Indeed, said Downey at the launch, people had very different views of Lenihan generally, much in the way a blind man feeling an elephant touches its trunk and thinks it's a snake, and another feels its leg and thinks it's a tree.
The Taoiseach was lavish in his praise on Wednesday. It was impossible not to like Lenihan, he said, and told of the time the two of them got into a stretch limo outside their New York hotel many years ago. Young Bertie was fascinated with the car and was examining it closely when the porter told them they shouldn't be in it, it wasn't theirs. Lenihan said all right, closed the door, opened the drinks cabinet, said cheers and handed Bertie a glass. "It was one of the most pleasant drinks I ever had," said the Taoiseach.
King of the hill
The President's husband, Martin McAleese, is a keen jogger. Most mornings, rain, hail, shine or location, he sets out on a run of six to eight miles. This causes little problem in the Phoenix Park, indeed an off-duty garda from the Aras often joins him, but it can cause problems elsewhere, when protocol dictates heavy security.
In Canada on the President's recent visit, bodyguards were provided on the daily run. This meant two Mounties following in a car and another on foot. The running Mountie soon had difficulty keeping up and took to accompanying Dr McAleese on a bike. But the steep hills of St Johns, Newfoundland, proved too much. He was spotted hanging on to the back of a lorry to get him up the incline. His charge bounded up unaided.
Dr McAleese, an accountant turned dentist with a now small practice in Crossmaglen, is fit and lean.
Sporting win
The winner of last week's Irish Times/Chequered Flag crossword competition announced in Monday's sports supplement was one Roisin Shortall, 12 Iveragh Rd, Gaeltacht Park, Dublin 9. This the same Roisin Shortall who represents Dublin North West for Labour in the Dail Eireann and is as keen a fan of the Dubs as her northside neighbour, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Is she putting down a marker for the sports portfolio in a future government? She wins a £100 travel voucher.