DRAPIER: For once the spotlight was off politicians this week as Roman Catholic bishops sought ineffectually to control the fall-out from the resignation of Bishop Brendan Comiskey and the charges made on Prime Time against Cardinal Desmond Connell.
It was not a pretty sight and is going to get an awful lot worse, especially if the mindset of the Hierarchy remains so Vatican-centred and unaware of the extent to which this is a very different world and a very different Ireland to that of even 20 years ago.
Drapier does not normally stray into this territory. He knows that most Irish people have a deep affection for the Catholic Church and many could not imagine an Ireland without a strong and central role for the Church. But Drapier is also a realist and one of the points being made in a depleted Leinster House this week was that the next government may well face the first real Church/State clash in our history, one that will make the Mother and Child controversy pale into oblivion.
The simple fact is that the Church leaders seem congenitally incapable of dealing with the issues other than on their own terms. The overlap between canon law and the law of the land is increasingly blurred, and there seems to be a strong sense of resentment on the part of some churchmen about being expected to live within the norms of civil society.
For much of the life of this State the Catholic Church has behaved as if it was a law onto itself, a sort of state within the State, a view clearly encouraged by the Vatican.
That world is no more, though some of the bishops have difficulty in accepting that point. More than that, the present Hierarchy is leaderless, floundering from one crisis to the next. Only Bishop Willie Walsh cuts any sort of an independent and credible figure in a landscape of unrelieved greyness.
Nobody in here expected for one moment that the sort of investigation that is needed would be instigated by the bishops.
That is why Micheal Martin moved so decisively on Thursday. Our old friend George Birmingham will not pull any punches and his proposals when adopted - as they will be - will confront the Catholic leaders with truly painful choices. But this time the old rules and the old ways will not prevail.
Back in Leinster House, a funereal air prevailed. The one serious electioneering issue to surface during the week was the spat over the Exchequer figures. We are about to see a spending spree like we have never seen before over the coming weeks, with Government parties distributing largesse on an unprecedented scale. Jim McDaid put it bluntly recently when he reminded the people of north Kerry just who it was who held the purse strings, something which the people of north Kerry would do well not to forget.
As to the row over the Exchequer figures, Drapier believes this will blow into a major election issue. Is Charlie McCreevy leaving the public finances in good order or is he leaving the cupboards bare, facing his successor with a squandered boom and depleted resources?
Drapier has felt all along that the handling of the Celtic Tiger will be a key issue: did we use the money wisely or have we blown it? So far the jury is out but the first shots have been fired in this particular battle.
The Seanad met on Thursday when Michael Woods insisted in completing all stages of the Children with Disabilities Bill. This time there was a calmer atmosphere, helped by the fact that the Minister did accept the validity of many of the points made last week by Joe O'Toole and Paddy Burke and did include significant amendments at report stage.
Unfortunately, however, no effort was made to meet the objections of the many outside groups who remain hostile to the measure. Bertie Ahern has promised that Michael Woods will meet these groups over Easter so Drapier wonders why the rush again on Thursday to get this legislation through the Seanad. As Drapier said last week if ever a Bill needed sensitivity and careful teasing out it is this one.
IN any event the Bill will not be enacted in the lifetime of this parliament and whoever the next minister is will need to do a lot of listening.
Meanwhile Drapier still can't understand why the Minister persisted in rushing the Bill through the Seanad, but then life is full of little mysteries.
As the election date nears, one feature of the election seems to have escaped most people: the constituencies of Dublin North, Meath and Dublin West will have electronic voting. It's one of those changes which slip by very quietly in here and it is only now that it is on the point of being implemented that the enormity of the proposed change is sinking in.
Apart from paper-free polling stations, the real change will be in how we get the results.
There will be no scrutineers, no tallymen, no physical ballot papers to be brought to the centre and manually counted, no long drawn-out counts, no drama as surpluses are distributed or candidates eliminated.
Instead of all that the polls will close at 10 p.m. and by midnight we will have the full result. By midnight on polling day in Meath, Dublin North and Dublin West the whole show will be over. It will be as simple and as antiseptic as that. Talk about sudden death play-offs.
Drapier has mixed views on this development. The day , or days, of the count were one of those few occasions when the nation talks to itself, when politics provides real drama, when amidst the excitement and turmoil real issues do get addressed.
Drapier feels we may be losing far more than we think with this change, a change for which Drapier saw no real need.
As of now Meath, North Dublin and West Dublin are trial runs. But Drapier knows how committed Noel Dempsey and the senior people in the Department of the Environment are to extend it to the whole country. Drapier advises caution. Let's see how it works and think hard before we agree to go all the way.
Finally, this week saw the decision of Fianna Fáil senator Tom FitzGerald to retire on grounds of ill health. Even though Tom had not been well, the decision came as a surprise and was a source of regret to all parties.
Tom was one of the genuine characters. A former fishermen, he knew more about all matters marine than most experts, was passionate about environmental matters, spoke beautiful Irish, but, most of all, as a whip he was a man of his word. Drapier would like to wish Tom a return to health and an opportunity to enjoy his retirement to the full.