"TIMING is all in life, as we know, and I won't elaborate on that," commented the Taoiseach, John Bruton, at a private showing on Wednesday of the first of the three-part BBC 2 series, The Presidency, which starts on Sunday. His remarks raised a laugh from those present - civil servants and Eurocrats mostly - who knew exactly what he was talking about. Indeed, the Taoiseach laughed too - maybe because the series should be good for a few votes this election year; in it, the Coalition emerges as a band of hard-working Euro heroes.
Running for Presidency of the European Union, the Taoiseach said, required the same skills as being chairman of Trim Urban Council or of a committee of the House. These were the skills to listen, to assess the others' points of view and to produce a compromise, but neither too early nor too late, as timing was all.
Before the Presidency, he had assumed that everything was decided in advance of a meeting; now he knew there was a terrific amount of uncertainty up to the very end. One didn't know how individuals were going to react so it was necessary to listen and try and pick up the nuances. "A lot of work at the very last minute was not on the strength of technical argument but on the development of good personal relations.
The series opens with Minister for Europe Gay Mitchell putting on his tie before the July opening ceremony but the star of the first episode is undoubtedly the Tanaiste Dick Spring, who the viewer is told made 72 flights during the Presidency. We see him, often, in the Government jet, in Brussels, at numerous meetings and taking his foreign minister colleagues to a pub in Tralee.
The best supporting actor is Ivan Yates and bit parts go to Mitchell,
John Bruton and Ruairi Quinn. The sets - Dublin Castle, Iveagh Rouse, Government Buildings and Kerry - look splendid.