THE battle for the hearts and minds of the Irish voters is well and truly on. Fianna Fail yet again last weekend confirmed its desire to abolish the residential property its time with Labour, it openly blamed its "socialist" pals for increasing the residential property tax take - a move subsequently reversed.
All parties have identified this tax as one of the battlegrounds before the next general election. Michael McDowell for the PDs on Wednesday's Morning Ireland stated the PDs were "stepping up" their campaign against this tax and, similarly, Fine Gael was helpfully leaking that some of its Dublin deputies were unhappy with their election prospects unless something was done on this tax.
It looks very much as if we're now into the inevitable "Dutch auction", something which is abhorred by the long term strategists within most of the parties. However, this type of view tends to be long forgotten in the run up to a general election.
A much harder nut to crack will be the water charges, although after the Dublin West by election, the desire to do something will be just as strong. It could be cynically said that the political parties have already forgotten the implications of that by election and that they are reverting to type and playing to the more affluent galleries (e.g. residential property tax).
Drapier knows this is not the case and feels "the line of least resistance" is being attacked first but eventually, before the next election, the parties will be trying to outdo each other in their promises to the public on water charges.
Drapier fears we could be back into a 1977 situation when all sorts of goodies were offered to the public. It could be said that the public is much more discerning nowadays but Drapier is not so sure. It didn't seem like that on the doorsteps of Dublin West.
THE atmosphere around here this week in regard to Northern Ireland is somewhat more chastened than previous weeks. The silly contretemps between Bertie Ahern and John Bruton is over for the time being. While it is accepted that Bertie Ahern injudiciously raised the ghost of John Redmond, it was also felt John Bruton's tetchy reaction was "un Taoiseach like".
Drapier thinks it is ironic that some of the main protagonists in the North on the unionist side seem to be looking in at us much more than we realise. There was a time when unionist leaders would totally disregard views expressed from the South as irrelevant.
Nowadays it appears that anything said on one side of the middle line in this debate is regarded by them as inflammatory, whereas some of their leaders have made their careers on motivating public opinion against a perceived but unreal threat.
We had some further inkling of the confused state of Government thinking in Question Time on Wednesday when the Taoiseach equated the planting of bombs with the elaborate bomb hoax recently at Dublin Airport and yet in further questioning, stated that while republicans who had connections with paramilitaries would not be allowed to participate in all party talks until an IRA ceasefire was restored, he didn't seem to have any problem in meeting the political representatives on the loyalist side aligned to paramilitaries who were behind the bomb hoax. Drapier thinks we deserve clarification.
The storm clouds are certainly gathering regarding worker unrest. The on off nature of the nurses dispute is worrying. This dispute is one of many looming and given the proximity to a general election, yet again, Drapier fears for the future.
Even the medical consultants are getting in on the act. They are looking for an increase in their public service salary. If they don't get it, they won't be indulging in anything as unseemly as industrial action like the unfortunate nurses. Oh no, not for them! They have a much more sophisticated way of looking for their increase.
Somewhat sinisterly, they are suggesting they will increase pressure on the Government by highlighting what they say are the long waiting lists and other difficulties in the medical service. Drapier thinks it is their duty to highlight this in any event.
THIS threat came home to Drapier in the last few weeks when, in response to representations on behalf of some of his constituents looking to get much needed operations, he has been advised by the consultants involved about all the ills in the medical service today and, in the same breath as explaining the difficulty in the particular case, the consultant then goes on to exhort Drapier and his colleagues to provide more finance for the service.
Drapier can assure the consultants there is little sympathy for them in here. They are already getting a fine fat salary from the State and on top of that they are apparently earning on average over £100,000 a year for private work carried out with public facilities.
All of this has shades of the difficult years in the late 1980s regarding hospital waiting lists and patients on trolleys. That crisis seemed to have "died a death" early in this decade but has been resurrected in the last few months.
Drapier and a lot of his colleagues feel there may well be a correlation between the on off crisis and the demand for extra salary. Drapier would like to bring a few of these consultants and other high earners to some of the more disadvantaged areas of the satellite towns around Dublin in an effort to "prick" their social conscience. Is it any wonder the ordinary average citizen is becoming more cynical daily?
Readers may feel Drapier is himself becoming extremely cynical and well he might. TDs are also looking for a salary increase! No doubt political correctness will put an end to that suggestion.
Another Minister who seems to coming a cropper more and more is the beleaguered Minister for Education. Niamh Bhreathnach needlessly seems to cause trouble for herself. The way the exam results issue was handled left a lot to be desired and recently we have a proposal to grade schools as to whether they are good, bad or indifferent. Drapier would warn the Minister and the Government to tread very warily on this one.
However, the most staggering proposal of all from Education appears to be getting rid of history as a core subject. No matter how the Minister may put a gloss on it, this type of proposal is off the wall and is bound to raise the hackles of various disparate groups. Drapier can see the Opposition wreaking havoc with this one.
A joyous occasion was held on Wednesday in the National Museum at the launch of Maire Geoghegan Quinn's book The Greed Diamond. All shapes and sizes of political and non political life were present with Marian Finucane doing the honours in the "interest of sisterhood".
While Drapier has not read the book, an extract in a Sunday newspaper raised a few eyebrows among the more straight laced in here. There was great speculation along the corridors as to whom she was referring in the hotel bedroom "Brian Rix type" romp.