It is an extraordinary and uncomfortable irony that two weeks into the ratification of our much vaunted Programme for Prosperity and Fairness we are experiencing the worst industrial relations chaos and transport disruption for two decades. The scene this week was one of near anarchy. No one was in control and no one seemed to know what to do.
It is easy to look for scapegoats. Mary O'Rourke is a tempting target and some were tempted, most notably the Evening Herald which gave her the full treatment on Thursday. But the problem goes much deeper than the performance of any one minister. CIE, and all that stems from it, is the immediate problem but, as Drapier has noted before, the real and deeper challenge comes from dealing with the unrealistic expectations and old-fashioned begrudgery which are a direct consequence of the Celtic Tiger.
CIE first.
It is a mess. The new Dublin Aircoach service shows what competition can do - and shows the lengths to which vested interests will go in order to make life difficult for any threat to their monopoly. Opening the doors to greater competition, while not the solution, would at least be a start.
Privatisation was much spoken of this week. But Drapier sees little real enthusiasm. The British experience has yet to be shown to work and the reality is that the best way to handle public transport is through a properly run and properly financed public service authority.
The problem now and ever is one of management, political direction and resources. We are not a big country. Our problems are not unique, there are many international models to guide us, and yet we are floundering around as if the invention of the wheel has been left to us.
When Brian Joyce, the subject in recent weeks of a series of personal assaults from Mary O'Rourke, talked of interference he was saying no more than the truth. Does anyone know what the policy on Luas now is? Is it to be underground, is it to be a metro, is it to be the PD plan?
It changes by the month. Does any CIE board know with confidence that hard, necessary decisions will be supported by the government of the day? Of course not. The first flexing of union muscles will see political pressure urging it to "settle" and the inevitable "settlement" will never be on the board's terms. Drapier could go on, but we all know the picture. The "blue flu" and the nurses' dispute were the first two shots in the new industrial relations scenario. Public disruption does work. Muscle is might.
And we are only at the beginning. Success has brought a new surliness. The teachers are in a particularly truculent mood. And they are not the only ones. People see evidence all around of new prosperity, of instant millionaires, of conspicuous consumption, of rewards out of proportion to achievement. They feel excluded and resentful. In the old days it was called begrudgery.
Shane Ross, dubbed this week the "true voice of the Left", was particularly excoriating in his attack on the bonuses paid to the executives of AIB. DIRT is not paid, the bank's share price drops, rural branches are closed and yet the executives get annual bonuses in the high six figures. Bonuses on top of already hefty salaries. People do notice, and they draw their own conclusions.
PPF is going to be the last agreement of its kind. At this stage it simply papers over the reality that we are no longer a community. We are fast becoming a jungle of competing interests. Drapier may be in a minority, but he does take seriously the recent report of the ESRI that we are heading for trouble if we don't do certain things.
It is politically fashionable to dump on Prof John FitzGerald and the ESRI. But let's not forget John FitzGerald was one of the few economic commentators to predict the current levels of prosperity and he at least deserves to be taken seriously. And it is not as if he is a lone voice. Other external commentators, including Wim Duisenberg, are saying something similar.
The Greeks had a word for it - hubris - the pride that comes before a fall. The real challenge of governing a restless, divided society is facing this Government with a vengeance.
Bertie Ahern may be in perpetual electioneering mode, but by now he should be aware that the constant blowing of self-congratulatory trumpets, the incessant hype and the glorification of material success are creating problems that he and his Government are choosing to pretend do not exist or can be sorted out with more concessions or contrived deals.
Drapier is not a Cassandra.
Normally he is a cheerful fellow and he accepts that we have come a long way. But the underlying public mood is strangely sour. The irony is that social cohesion may be more easily found in hard times than in good times and therein lies the biggest challenge facing this Government.
AT another level, it was an extraordinary week in the Seanad - a parliamentary first for the Government, and not one it will want to repeat.
It was all to do with the Shannon River Council Bill. This Bill was first drafted four years ago in response to Shannon flooding by Brendan Daly and Michael O'Kennedy, both then in the Seanad and in opposition. However, it died with the last government and was not included in the Fianna Fail/PD Programme for Government.
Fast forward to the continuing flooding of the Shannon. The Bill was dug up, dusted down and presented by Madeleine Taylor-Quinn, Kathleen O'Meara and Joe O'Toole - an all-party opposition attempt to revive the issue. From the outset it was clear the Government was not enthusiastic but the Opposition pressed on. Eventually Second Stage was passed, with speakers from all parties supporting the Bill.
By now the Bill had aroused considerable interest in the Shannon region, especially after this year's disastrous flooding and when Fine Gael made Private Members' Time available last Wednesday to take Committee Stage it was believed the Bill was on its way to completion in the Seanad.
Then an extraordinary thing happened. The Bill's 21 sections cleared the House within an hour without opposition. The Bill was then reported back and passed into its fifth and final stage. The fifth stage is normally a formality - if a Bill has already been approved in principle and in detail there is no need to oppose it. But this time it was opposed.
The first and only vote came at this point when Fianna Fail and PD members (the latter having chastely absented themselves from the debate) voted the Bill down.
It was an extraordinary moment. The Fianna Fail and PD members, who had enthusiastically championed the Bill, now had the rug pulled from under their feet by their colleagues in Government and were hung out to dry - especially those in the Shannon region, who have embarrassing questions to answer this weekend.