Our politicians have generally been reluctant to be seen holidaying in the sun lest they be branded richer and more privileged than their constituents or taken for junketeers. In this summer, however, those who don't go abroad run the risk of being viewed as off the wall. So what are members of the Cabinet doing for the traditional August break? The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, will be in Kerry as usual with his two daughters. Tanaiste Mary Harney is going to the Algarve for two weeks; David Andrews is swapping his house in Blackrock for one in northern Italy and will also go to Connemara; Charlie McCreevy will be at the Galway races and may get a little time in the sun although it's not arranged yet; Joe Walsh is off to the races and then staying at home in West Cork; Sile de Valera will be at home in Clare but is going to the US and Estonia on business; Michael Smith is working during August but will take two weeks in September, he knows not where yet; Micheal Martin is going down the road to West Cork; Brian Cowen is in Nice now; John O'Donoghue will go to the Galway races and then to the Canaries for a couple of weeks; James McDaid will also be at the races and generally around the country; Michael Woods will be in "the sunny south-east for two weeks" and Mary O'Rourke will have two weeks in Valencia (Kerry that is, not Spain).
The remaining members of the Cabinet, Noel Dempsey and Dermot Ahern, don't know and won't say, respectively.