The Minister for Finance, battling with the details of next month's Budget, is very happy in his work. Mr McCreevy told Ogra Fianna Fail delegates in Killarney on Saturday: "If each one of you gets a quarter of the fun, the education, the excitement and the challenge out of politics that I've got, you will have a great time."
He advised the young Soldiers of Destiny that it was a waste of time putting the label "enemy" on political opponents or waiting in the long grass for revenge. "There are so many better things to do with your time - maybe even better things you could do in the long grass - than plotting for revenge."
Avoiding any reference to budgetary matters, Mr Mc Creevy said he had been warned before coming to the conference that the delegates wanted none of "that ould economic stuff". "Telling the Minister for Finance not to talk about economics is like asking Michael Flatley not to talk about himself - it is a contradiction in terms."
Mr McCreevy said the electorate was wonderfully ambivalent. "The electorate's favourite dining experience is to bite the hand that feeds them." The number of tribunals in recent years might suggest that the electorate wanted virtuous politicians. That was wrong, he said. "The electorate in Ireland loves flawed politicians. It loves the smell of sulphur off a TD or Minister. That is why I'm allergic to spin-doctors.
"Spin-doctors, it seems to me, always want to get rid of the smell of sulphur and present you as perfect, with a perfect wardrobe, perfect weight, perfect speech. They want to sand down the rough bits that make people interesting."
Mr McCreevy revealed a be- hind-the-scenes drama before presenting last year's Budget. "When it came to change into my best suit to tell the nation the wonders I was bringing to it, I went to my office, locked the door, unzipped the clothes bag - and found myself facing the sexiest dress of purple taffeta I've ever seen.
"Around the same time, at home, Noeleen unzipped her clothes bag and found my suit. I'm telling you, it took years off our lives trying to get the bags back to their owners and to make sure I was not the first Fianna Fail finance minister to read the Budget in full drag."
