DRAPIER - AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO POLITICS: Education and health. Health and education. Broken promises. Je ne regrette rien. The Dáil, the media, the deputies, the senators, the public, all have been infused with the topics of health and education, plus the 14-page document released by Government a year on from the general election.
All of these issues have held attention over the past couple of weeks.
Before Drapier starts on education, it is clear that the Labour Party had a damn good conference, contributing in no small way to the good opinion poll taken immediately after it which in turn will contribute to a better Oireachtas environment.
There is nothing worse than a Government such as this one with a numerical superiority to be faced by a lacklustre opposition. That time is now over.
The write-off of Fine Gael by some media pundits is premature. Drapier has said it before and he will say it again: Enda Kenny is a "slow burn" and his ratings in future polls will show that.
Fianna Fáil, while disappointed, still believes it can ride out this period of discontent and that the public will soon forget. I wouldn't bet on that, Bertie. Camelot is no more.
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Education has dominated the news for the last while, but most particularly in the last week. Much was made of the Freedom of Information discovery of documents by Paul McGrath and the subsequent public rift between the former minister, Michael Woods and the current one, Noel Dempsey.
The more serious matter of third-level education fees remains the dominant issue. There seems to be a wide parliamentary belief that the fees should never have been taken away, except of course for the Labour Party whose policy it was.
There is a clear memory that Proinsias De Rossa, then, of course, of Democratic Left, had very grave difficulty with that policy at the rainbow cabinet and indeed the plan was long delayed because of his outspoken comments on it.
Be that as it may, the public has had seven to eight years of enjoyment of the abolition of fees and it is always extremely difficult to put back such an imposition when in fact it hasn't been in practice for so long.
The real difficulty is that the kite was flown last September about third-level fees and it has never stopped flying since. Yet this is now almost the end of May and there is as yet no report to study or to allow a properly constructed public debate.
It has narrowed down nastily. If you support the introduction of fees again you're for the poor; if you support the continued abolition you're for the rich. This is a real pity because the issue is complex and not so easily pigeon-holed.
The underlying fear in this debate is that, while the income threshold for fees may be set high now, if the Department of Finance gets fees back, the threshold will come down over time.
Added to that is the very live factor of decreasing student numbers. In this column some time ago, it was opined that the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, was the new Jackie Healy-Rae in the Government and so it has turned out.
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The litany of bad news on Health continues unabated. The Minister, Micheál Martin, has been the subject of daily doses of opprobrium. Three major reports are concluded - the Hanley report, the Prospectus report and the Brennan report - and the speculation around the House is about when these will be released.
The general view is that the quicker they are out in the open and the full import of their prescriptions is savoured, the better it will be for the health service and the Minister.
Now Micheál Martin is like the young Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. Whereas the publication of the report will lead to a full-blooded debate, which will be followed hopefully by stark reality.
All parties agree that health expenditure has been pushed up over the last six years to an astounding degree and yet the better delivery of services is not apparent.
There would be a sense of relief all round if the reports were published and if a system of accountability was instilled right throughout from top to bottom within all aspects of health management and health delivery.
There is a general consensus that the health boards are a distraction, with local professional and political factions arguing their case for their patch at board meetings.
Everyone wants a specialist unit at every crossroads and that was never possible nor ever will be. So release of the reports should usher in a (short) period of "shock and awe" followed by decision-making followed by action.
The Government needs to do it quickly and with a sure touch.
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Are we set to lose Étain Doyle, the telecommunications regulator? Ms Doyle was the first regulator appointed by law in Ireland for the public utilities. She came in under the rainbow coalition.
Fiercely independent, as per the legislation, she worked during the short tenure of Alan Dukes, then Mary O'Rourke of Public Enterprise and now with Dermot Ahern at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources.
Since then, Bill Prasifka has been appointed aviation regulator and Tom Reeves as energy regulator and there are more coming.
The incident of Étain Doyle refusing to come to an Oireachtas committee will be remembered, but she quickly recovered from that and presented herself whenever summoned.
She always laid out her stall in a punctilious way and it is interesting to note that with all three governments she maintained cordial relations, but properly so at a distance.
It was good to hear her being combative and confident on radio recently about An Post. There was no dilution whatsoever in her sure touch as she dealt with the issues within her remit. However, the question remains: in a world of regulators, who regulates the regulators?