The week started with the £25,000 cheque controversy. Looking at it as objectively as possible, Drapier thinks that the Taoiseach handled the situation quite well.
He allowed the two Opposition leaders, John Bruton and Ruairi Quinn, to be drawn out. It looked as if nothing much was going to happen until John Bruton accused the Taoiseach of hiding behind lawyers. Bertie Ahern stated he couldn't let that go, and then read a short prepared statement which he had up his sleeve. Drapier thought that Bertie took great delight in emphasising what the tribunal was referring to when it stated that it "would expect that persons in a position of responsibility" would not justify disclosure of certain information other than in the course of the tribunal sittings. This was a dig at Bruton and Quinn who, when the Taoiseach finished, struggled to regain ground. It was not surprising that the next day there was hardly a murmur from the Opposition about the matter.
However, while Bertie might have won that battle Drapier is not sure if he will win the war. Hardly a week goes by without some revelation and link with the past which, no matter how innocently the Taoiseach may have been involved with it, will yet be a further tarnish to his slipping image.
Drapier noticed recently that while The Irish Times has been muted in its coverage of scandals, allegations, etc, affecting the Government, the Irish Independent has been "majoring" on these issues. Last Wednesday the Independent had article after article on the £25,000 cheque, while The Irish Times had relatively little coverage. This recent tendency to dump on the Government by the Independent surprises Drapier, in that it was the Independent which came down in support of the Fianna Fail/Labour Fail/PD pact on the last few days of the last election. Who remembers the "It's payback time" headlines?
For some reason the present Government has, in the meantime, fallen foul of the Independent. Drapier wonders why.
On the campaign trail Drapier is somewhat surprised with the reaction to the Haughey/Keane revelations. He would have thought that perhaps people, by now, would not have been easily surprised given all the recent revelations, but to Drapier's surprise what Terry Keane had to say seems to have as much if not more effect than the Haughey money revelations.
Drapier has some sympathy for Bertie Ahern in that no matter what he seems to do the past is coming back to haunt him and there's not much he can do about it. Drapier has even more sympathy for some of the younger members of Fianna Fail who were not next nor near the Haughey era and yet have to put up with all of this. The local and European elections will tell a tale.
Speaking of the elections Drapier notes that hardly a minute goes by without announcements and photo opportunities being organised by the Government. Brian Cowen reacted quickly to criticism by the Haemophilia Society which last week decried the delay in agreeing the tribunal of inquiry. Lo and behold, Brian was out this week with the terms of reference. Similarly, Noel Dempsey was trying to head off an election issue by holding a conference on genetically modified foods. The campaign for better childcare made a big splash on Tuesday and the very next day Fianna Fail discussed the issue at its parliamentary party meeting.
The post office issue had raised its head over the last number of weeks and again, true to form, the Government came up with a solution. Not only did it make sure that the Social Welfare contract for payment would stay with An Post, it went one better by promising a brave new world for rural post offices. Figures released recently showed that nearly 50 per cent of them were non-viable and yet the Government, because of political pressure, is now saying it is going to keep them going.
From what Drapier could see most of what it was promising was aspirational: the post offices might be given motor taxation registration, might be given airline reservations and might be given ESB bill payments. As Drapier sees it, we'll believe it when we see it. It would appear to Drapier that the Government is putting off the evil day for political reasons.
For some reason the Opposition was somewhat muted in its criticism on the post office issue. Perhaps it was hoping the issue would keep bubbling during the election campaign, or maybe it was worried that it might be accused of adding to the hype. Drapier was aware that there was a well-orchestrated campaign by the post masters' organisation but he is not altogether sure if this is a widely held view, in that there has always been widespread criticism of the lack of facilities in post offices.
From what Drapier can see, a lot of the small rural post offices are, in effect, being bypassed by people who live locally but who go to the large town where the facilities in the larger post office are far better. The fact is that politically it would take huge courage for any government to embark on a closure campaign. It will be interesting to see how Mary O'Rourke develops the one-stop shop post office. Mind you, in Drapier's view, Mary O'Rourke will be long gone out of Irish politics before that type of network will be achieved in the State, and of course the Government knew this when it made its announcement this week.
There were some jovial exchanges between, of all people, Nora Owen and the Taoiseach on the Order of Business both on Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday Nora Owen decried the fact that the capital city was brought to a standstill on Tuesday night because of the Bruce Springsteen concert. Socialist TD Joe Higgins couldn't let the opportunity pass without challenging Nora to give a few bars of one of the Boss's all-time favourites. On Thursday morning up popped Nora again to congratulate Manchester United, Denis Irwin and Roy Keane.
Of course Bertie, being a great Manchester United fan, could hardly contain himself. Which is something like what happened in the Members' Bar on the big match night. Normally a fairly sedate place, it erupted when Manchester United scored the two late goals. Even the most ardent soccer-haters in here had to acknowledge that the victory was magnificent.
Drapier would advise readers to keep an eye on the issue of Kosovan refugees. Liz O'Donnell and John O'Donoghue seem to have been pitted against each other in that the former wants the State to take more refugees whereas John O'Donoghue seems to be sticking to his guns that we can take only 1,000. Liz O'Donnell said she will be proposing to the Cabinet that the State take more than it has already promised and it will be interesting to see if John O'Donoghue relents. Liz, never known to miss a photo opportunity, was to the fore this week being photographed first in a maternity unit with a new Kosovan baby and then two days later on a fact-finding mission in Macedonia being hugged by some local children. Drapier wonders who could argue with that.