IT was a week of rumours and nastiness, the jitteriest week Drapier has experienced for a very long time. Few were sorry to see it end, even if more than a few left Leinster House on Thursday evening wondering if the present Dail had met for the last time. Drapier can at least put them right on that one.
He expects to see his colleagues, whether rested or not, at 2.30 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon, April 8th, and he feels fairly confident that there are three or four sitting weeks at least left in this Dail.
Will it be more than three weeks? Drapier's mind is not closed on the matter but he doubts it. He is fairly sure John Bruton, Dick Spring and Proinsias De Rossa have not yet come to any final decision, but that their failure to stop speculation by ringfencing an October or November date long before now has created its own momentum and a momentum that will not easily be stopped.
The problem for the Coalition leaders is that Fianna Fail has in effect declared the election to be on. It's a gamble and it could well fall flat on its face if John Bruton calls Bertie Ahern's bluff, lets Fianna Fail spend its lolly, unveil its policies, see its expensive billboard advertisements fade in the April showers and May sunshine and have to start all over again in the autumn. It's a tempting strategy and Drapier isn't saying the boys aren't tempted.
Drapier defected increasing pressure among many Government backbenchers this week to follow just such a line. All Drapier will say is: don't rule it out. Bruton and Spring are long enough around not to be rushed into an election by the Opposition or by sections of the media, some of whom have been predicting the election on a monthly basis since last October.
These same people who guaranteed a quick "run to the country" after Ruairi Quinn's Budget were this week assuring one and all that the House would not come back after Easter. But then, as the late John Healy used to say, if you make enough predictions, you are bound to be right sometime.
BACK to the rumours. It was one of those weeks when anything was credible and the more outlandish it was the better chance it had of being believed. Drapier saw one such rumour in the making. He overheard one mischievous Minister being pressed by a flustered member of the PDs as to the date.
"The boss is in a funny mood," said the Minister, "behaving strangely ... It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he was on his way to the Park already. He had that look about him this morning." A wink was as good as a nod.
By the time Drapier dropped in for a cup of coffee an hour later - the rumour had become an established fact. The Taoiseach was already in the Park... And that was only one of the rumours. The short break will indeed be welcomed. It might calm us all down a little.
As for the nastiness, the week had more than its share of it. Once again it centred on the hepatitis C tribunal. Drapier wonders if we have all lost our sense of proportion. The tribunal was established, it was open and listened to the evidence and it came to its conclusions.
Central to those conclusions was the assertion that Michael Noonan and Brendan Howlin had behaved properly and correctly at all times. Other unnamed earlier ministers had much more to answer for. For some reason or other sections of the media, not to mention some of our colleagues, refused to accept Tom Finlay's judgment and want examples made of Noonan and Howlin.
It's not a pretty sight: in fact some of it is downright vindictive and Drapier feels at this stage that a little fair play would not go astray. Not that it is going to happen this close to an election, but Drapier is long enough around to know that wheels have a habit of coming full circle.
MEANWHILE, our friend the "floating voter is much on everyone's mind at present. And why wouldn't he/she be, since all the pundits tell us that he/she is the person who will determine our fate, just as he/she rushed to Garret FitzGerald in 1981 only to leave him for Dessie O'Malley in 1987 and then flocked to Dick Spring via Mary Robinson in 1992. So where is he/she at the moment?
Well, we are all that bit more scientific in our approach these days. Gone, it seems, are the days when Ger Connolly could walk down a few streets in Tullamore or Austin Deasy knock on a few doors in Dungarvan and come back and tell us what the people were thinking.
Today everything has to be measured and researched. If it can't be measured apparently it doesn't exist and the place here is crawling with all sorts of fellows with clipboards and measuring tapes finding out for us not how the people are going to vote but what they really think. Most especially what sort of issues turn them on and what leaves them cold.
Peter Prendergast started this sort of thing back in Garret FitzGerald's day, and it gave Fine Gael a great initial boost before the other parties caught up. Now, of course, everyone is doing it and when everyone is at it there are no real secrets any more. It's going to make for a dull campaign, with all parties pandering to this pampered floating voter who decides all our fates.
FROM what Drapier can pick up all parties now have a sort of profile of the floating voter. Drapier doesn't much care for what he sees, but it explains a lot of what is happening lately.
You see, your typical Mr/Ms Floating Voter is likely to be cynical about all politicians, self opinionated, inordinately concerned with his/her own well being and with a great liking for simple, sweeping solutions even to complex problems. You probably know the sort of person we are talking about.
Drapier sees this profile as one explanation of some recent statements by political leaders and in particular of some of Mary Harney's recent outbursts. "Close down the blood bank. Don't use its products. Sack the director. Start from scratch", were seen by most people in here and in particular by medical people like Mary Henry as way over the top. Well maybe, but then it all depends on who was meant to be listening.
Anyway Drapier's point is fiat with all parties targeting some of the most boring and self absorbed people around there is going to be an awful sameness about much of the forthcoming campaign. But then as readers will know it is when things are at their most boring something dangerous and unexpected usually happens.