NOBODY in Leinster House is in any doubt that the days of the long summer holidays are over. Gone is the time when this place would "shut up shop" in July and not come back until October. Between Dial committee meetings in July and September and special sittings, the Dail has been on vacation only for August. This year the special sitting on July 25th concerning the crime crisis curtailed the summer break at the beginning and, from the first week of September committees have been beavering away.
One man who must have been happy over the summer was Dick Spring. Drapier hears his trips abroad were at a minimum. His spin doctors have recently been broadcasting how difficult life is for "poor Dick". Drapier read the headline "The loneliness of the long distance VIP" referring to Mr Spring. These articles must have been inspired by someone within Dick's coterie who gave figures of Dick's travels.
Drapier thinks there must be some inverted logic in this type of spin but at the moment it escapes him. One thing for certain is that, while Dick may be King of Tralee (particularly after the Foreign Ministers' jaunt there) all other areas - including Drapier's regard this with disdain.
Drapier cannot ever remember such blatant clientilism. Readers may say it is typical Irish begrudgery, yet if people like Garret FitzGerald and particularly Charlie Haughey had ever tried this they would have been abused "left, right and centre".
Another instance of this favouritism was evident in the announcement by the Minister for Justice to extend the pilot police security camera scheme to several areas all in Dublin with the exception of, where else, Tralee! While Drapier has no doubt that Tralee has a crime problem, he cannot imagine it would be on the scale of the country's major urban areas. It just so happens it's the Tanaiste's home town.
This favouritism may go down well in the constituency affected but Drapier would warn Dick Spring that it may not be so appreciated elsewhere. A public cynicism has attached itself to Labour and decisions like these do nothing to dispel it.
WHILE Bertie Ahern may have set the Dail rolling with his comments about coalition with Labour, the rest were not long in following him. Mary Harney matched him blow for blow and Dick Spring drew his line in the sand, saying he would not do business with the PDs. Interestingly, he, like Bertie, did not rule out courtship between Labour and Fianna Fail.
Proinnsias De Rossa ruled out both Fianna Fail and the PDs. (No surprise and the feeling is probably mutual!) If John Bruton was to settle on one spot for a while we might find out where stands Fine Gael.
Maybe we must rely on the statement put out sometime back by the newest politician in here, Senator Brian Hayes, as the definitive Fine Gael policy, that is, to maintain the present alliance. But Drapier warns it may be unwise to close off all options, particularly the PDs.
Drapier was never good at figures (one of the reasons he never made Minister for Finance) but he understood clearly the figures which came out from the Central Statistics Office on the Labour Force Survey which revealed significant divergences between that survey and the live register figures.
It struck Drapier that the Government spokespersons, particularly Ministers De Rossa and Richard Bruton, were "hoist with their own petard" when they previously derided the live register figures as unrepresentative and, at the same time, hailed the Labour Force Survey as a true and accurate account of the unemployment situation.
Drapier's message to them is: "You can't have it both ways, lads." The latter survey now shows, apparently, that a lot more people work and claim the dole at the same time than was realised. Drapier didn't think it significant when Minister De Rossa a week or so ago lauded his Department for being the highest spender of any Government department.
At the same time he abused what he termed employers' social welfare fraud. Drapier then, put it down to the usual Democratic Left rant. But as events unfolded it occurred to Drapier that what Minister De Rossa was doing was getting in the first shot, knowing that these fraud revelations were about to come out.
Minister De Rossa for some reason did not refer to social welfare fraud being created by people other than employers. He must not believe the old adage, "it takes two to tango". Sources in the Opposition parties suggest that maybe this is one reason why this situation has come to pass: that the Department under Minister De Rossa's direction has gone soft on individual social welfare fraud cases but that there has been a hyping up of "employers' social welfare fraud".
NOW the onus is on Minister De Rossa to act and act swiftly. Several of his ministerial colleagues were delighted at his predicament. Particularly since all believed he was leading a charmed life in the Cabinet. Drapier thinks it will be interesting to chart developments, if there are any.
Drapier nearly fell off the chair last Monday night when Nora Owen said this Government could go all the way to January 1998. Most interested parties, and particularly the candidates, understood that the longest this Government could go was November 1997.
Most in here feel this Government could call an election sooner rather than later but Minister Owen's reference to January 1998 may well be significant. Drapier wonders if before next week any political animal (or analyst) can come up with a suggestion as to why the Minister's quoted date is so significant?