Reverse for criminal bureau a blow to Owen

DPAPlER'S prize for woman of the week goes not to Mary O'Rourke or Liz O'Donnell or any of the usual suspects, but to Geraldine Gilligan, whose success in the High Court has ensured that the Criminal Assets Bureau got off to the worst possible start.

They made a large, well-publicised seizure of Mrs Gilligan's assets and now they have to give them all back. That is, of course, if they still have them. Will the purchasers from the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) have to return all the goods to Geraldine?

Nora Owen and her beleaguered Department of Justice promised us great things from the Criminal Assets Bureau, but it has all been shot down in flames. We are told the Government will appeal the judgment. Should the Government lose this appeal, the public will be entitled to ask questions. Meanwhile, estranged husband, John, is sitting in a London jail awaiting trial on drugs-related charges.

Mervyn Taylor is the 16th deputy to announce his retirement on the dissolution of this Dail. Drapier has been saying for over a year that the number of those going to retire would grow and grow, and that has proved to be the case. By the time the fateful day comes, Drapier's forecast is that about 25 deputies will have decided to pull out and some of them will be quite unexpected. Watch this space.

The biggest complication in the decision to fix a date for the dissolution and the consequent general election is the tribunal of inquiry into payments by Dunnes Stores to politicians. Both Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are uncertain and apprehensive about what is going to happen.

The big development this week was that Ben Dunne came up with two further documents which he handed over rather intriguingly to the Judge Buchanan inquiry, which is still going on so far as public servants are concerned.

He does not appear to have handed any documents in to the Judge McCracken tribunal, but reports suggest he may be about to do so. If and when he does, the fur will really begin to fly. The big question is whether You Know Who will be officially identified and, if so, will it be sooner rather than later?

Drapier was somewhat surprised that Judge McCracken put back the date for the start of taking evidence in his tribunal until a week or two after Easter. This makes the starting date about mid-April, and if the evidence and the production of a report are going to take at least two or three months, it will run well into the summer.

There are many people who would like to see the general election over before the tribunal gets going, but that is hardly feasible. If a general election is called while the tribunal is sitting, it will probably have to adjourn, as the beef tribunal did during the last general election. That won't prevent speculation continuing apace.

Election fever is rising by the day and the Government is responding as governments do. It made amendments to the Working Hours Bill to try to fudge the issue when it found strong opposition to it, and when the proposal to put 21 per cent VAT on creches blew up in its face, ran for cover with the announcement of a review body to look into the whole question.

In the meantime, the tax will riot be implemented and the problem and the decision are postponed until after the election. The Government hardly has the stomach for facing any difficult problems, and this is the time for lobby groups to get their way.

Countdown time is often hand-out time. The Exchequer is relatively healthy and the Government is not going to put a seat in jeopardy for the sake of a few million here or there.

For example, Brendan Howlin is going to buy his way out of trouble on rural water charges. Such was the anxiety of the Labour Party to get Joe Higgins and Militant Labour off their backs in respect of water charges in parts of Dublin that they moved too quickly and forgot about the rural people who were paying away quietly for years.

Not surprisingly, there was an eruption and Fine Gael backbenchers in particular were outraged at what Labour was doing.

Two events this week gave Drapier a chill feeling and a sense of nausea. The body of a 16-year-old was left for more than 24 hours on waste ground in Tralee before the State Pathologist arrived.

Meanwhile, a 16-year-old girl in Co Armagh was tied to a lamp-post, and had her hair chopped off and her body covered in paint because the peace activists of the republican movement decided she was guilty of some unspecified crime. What a charming island we inhabit.