QUIDNUNC: They haven't got the off yet, but every politician in the country is ready to go. he Fine Gael battle bus, a converted tour bus with full media centre cnveying Michael Noonan and local candidates around the country, has been on the road for weeks.
The directors of elections will be P. J. Mara for Fianna Fáil, Finbar Fitzpatrick for Fine Gael, Labour's Mike Allen and John Higgins for the Progressive Democrats.
All the major parties will hold daily media briefings chaired by the leaders, when in Dublin, by frontbenchers, by the directors of elections and/or the general secretaries. FF has hired special offices for the purpose in Treasury Buildings. Fine Gael will be in Tara Street, close to the national dailies but remote from RTÉ, while Labour has taken space in the RHA Gallery beside its Ely Place headquarters. By such briefings do the parties hope to set the agenda for the day (i.e., the one that suits them)?
Amid the preparations, though, there were concerns this week about the High Court case being taken by FF Dublin Mid West candidate Desmond Kelly, challenging the privileges available to election candidates who are already members of the Oireachtas. Kelly, who has retained renowned legal eagle John Rogers, claims that benefits such as an office, a secretary, free fax, computer, photocopying, and telephone facilities and 1,750 prepaid envelopes a month, available to sitting members until polling day, discriminates against other candidates as they are paid for out of public funds and are exempted from being treated as electoral expenses. Suggestions that ministers, once the election is called, could lose the great advantage of having cars and Garda drivers appear ill-founded, as such a facility is provided for security rather than convenience.
The case comes up next week and speculation about what it means depends on the judgment and how it is interpreted. While ministers will keep their Mercs, all other incumbents could lose their perks once the Dáil is dissolved or they could retain them but find they are liable for inclusion in the declaration of electoral expenditure. With limits per candidate of €18,347 in a three-seat constituency, €22,283 in a four-seater and €26,217 in a five-seater, the cent have to be watched.
The judgment won't be retrospective, but then even the current countrywide splurge isn't counted as the election has not been called. So the trend is spend now, tomorrow may be too late.
Pollster in poll stir
THERE has been a deluge of opinion polls in recent weeks and it will get worse. Thanks to the loophole found in the Electoral Bill last year by Senator Shane Ross we will have the benefit of polls right up to the bitter end. The Government had planned, and FG and Labour had agreed, to ban polls in the eight days before the election to avoid undue influence on the public. Ross pointed out that this permitted polls taken in advance to be published on polling day, thus creating even more influence. The measure was dropped.
Although the pollsters won the day, they are still sore at attempts to curb their activity and income (a national political poll from a major company costs about €12,000). They are so sore, in fact, that some are getting their own back. Jackie Gallagher, a voluntary adviser to FF, told Quidnunc that when he rang MRBI on Monday requesting a copy of the last Irish Times/MRBI poll, something usually available, he was turned down. The reason given was FF's attempt to restrict polling activity. MRBI's managing director, Ian McShane, told Quidnunc: "We co- operated in the past with the various parties and we simply took a decision, as they had attempted so vehemently to stifle our rights to operate and the public's right to information, that we would discontinue the tradition of handing out reports gratis to these parties."
The lonely authors' club
To the delight of both Republicans and Democrats, Bill Clinton turned up at Washington's Phoenix Park Hotel on Tuesday for the launch of Peter King's second novel, Deliver Us From Evil. Clinton, describing himself and King as joint members of the "lonely authors' club", praised the Republican Long Island Congressman's thriller based on the brokering of the Northern Ireland peace deal.
The former president, who features prominently in a cast of very familiar real characters, said the novel was not only a good read but an important cautionary tale that "reminds us that peace, like life, is fragile". It was an affirmation, at a time of terrible crisis in the Middle East, that "even the most intractable problems can be overcome" given persistence through the many bad days - "and I had a lot of bad days in Ireland". He acknowledged his debt to King, both in backing him on the Gerry Adams visa and in breaking ranks with fellow Republicans to oppose impeachment because he supported Clinton's role in the North.
King is a genial long-time supporter of Sinn Féin who played a significant part in getting Republican backing for Clinton's efforts in the North. He has used that experience to cast himself as the central figure in the book in the thinly disguised form of Congressman Sean Cross. Among the cross-party congressional figures at the launch were Marty Meehan (Dem, Mass), Richie Neal (Dem, Mass), Jack Quinn (Rep, New York), Carolyn McCarthy (Dem, New York), and Bill Coyne (Rep, Penn).
Talking Papal Bull
The Minister for Agriculture revealed a new scandal on Tuesday when he launched Prof Mary E. Daly's The First Department, a history of 100 years of the Department of Agriculture, in the National Library. Joe Walsh said that in the 1930s it was decided to introduce asses from Spain into Ireland to help strengthen the breed and make the Irish donkey population bigger and stronger. Ten Spanish stallions were imported, but unfortunately they showed not the slightest interest in the Irish female asses they were introduced to. The feeling was mutual; the Irish ignored the very un-Latin lover types. The whole thing, Walsh said, was quietly forgotten as a failed experiment.
Walsh also told guests, including former secretary-generals, former minister Alan Dukes and Senator John Dardis, that in the early 1960s the department was asked by the Pope for its views on a Papal Bull. The then secretary, John C. Nagle, replied that they were delighted to help on "such important matters as a Papal Bull". But there was no dogma or canon law involved. The Vatican wanted advice on how to handle an Aberdeen Angus bull in its herd at Castelgandolfo.
The book is only the third on a government department, ones on finance and environment being the others. But agriculture can claim to be the original as it was set up before the State and last year celebrated its 100th birthday. Strangely, Daly devotes only two of the 552 pages to the tribunal of inquiry into the beef industry.
What election?
The Aherns can certainly identify the important things in life. The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern spends much of this time talking about sport and even relates the timing of the election to sporting events. But then Roman emperors believed bread and circuses were the answer. Now the Taoiseach's brother, Noel Ahern, has had a glossy card delivered in his Dublin North West constituency. On one side there's his photo with his Leinster House address and phone number and on the other a list of all the Irish and English World Cup matches as well as the other games in their groups. No mention of any election, date or otherwise.
Long farewell for golf course diplomat
'He can spin but he doesn't slice the ball. A wily tactician, his long game is good, but he's deadly around the greens." Thus Brian Cowen on his press secretary, Declan Kelly, who is off to Australia as ambassador. Cowen and Kelly were a conspicuous international duo as they shuttled between the UN in New York and EU capitals, but the Minister failed to make the farewell party in Iveagh House on Tuesday as he was detained in Tullamore. He faxed in his speech, though, and it was read to the gathering - including second secretary Brendan Scannell, assistant secretary Marie Cross, new press counsellor Dermot Brangan, and the journos - by secretary- general Dermot Gallagher.
Gallagher said he didn't play golf so he didn't understand what he was reading, but he soldiered on. "Declan's handicap has never been lower. The North County Dublin Press Office has been known to manoeuvre up and down fairways and cross water hazards while advising this hard-working minister on the finer points of the Good Friday Agreement or the latest UN Security Council resolution. The office even wandered around the course at Slieve Russell Hotel two weeks ago while I had the challenge of reviewing North/South projects next door in west Cavan."
Cowen's script listed some of the tributes flowing in: "The UN Security Council condemned the decision and called for calm, especially in Canberra. Romano Prodi said that Declan's future was a matter for the Irish themselves, but added that the Commission would not necessarily be bound by the decision. Robert Mugabe offered him a job. Dana said the decision to send him to Australia 'didn't go far enough' and RTÉ said they lost the original announcement and would we mind faxing it to them again."
Renagh Holohan