DRAPIER doesn't know how we manage to do it. Here we were this week, three committees in full session, the Seanad having one of its busiest weeks and yet, on the doorsteps - in Dublin West at any rate - all of us were taking stick because the Dail was not sitting. Drapier knows its easy copy for the media and who is to blame them. The question is, why do we make it so easy for them?
Drapier has long been a student of parliament, at least in the practical sense; he leaves the academic stuff to others and, from where he sits, the new committee system is one of the best things to hit this place. He has always held the view that a good committee system is one of the key elements of an effective parliament and that at long last we are moving in that direction. Up to the 1970s, we had virtually no committees at all apart from the Public Accounts Committee; then we got the European Legislation Committee whose first - and best - chairman was Charlie Haughey.
In the 1980s, Garret FitzGerald established a rake of new committees, most of which Charlie Haughey dismantled in 1987. Some were good, some bad and one in particular - Crime, Lawlessness and Vandalism, was truly awful. Raughey, it may be remembered, argued that committees got in the way of effective government, asking too many questions, creating too many obstacles to action and in general spreading too much power too thinly for anything ever to be done.
CHARLIE Haughey had a point, but committees were back in fashion in 1992 when, to rub salt into John Bruton's wounds, the new Labour/Fianna Fail "dream team" put many of his ideas into practice. In Drapier's view the new system is working, though at this stage he wouldn't object to an overall review. The point Drapier is making is that TDs and senators are working harder than ever before. Some of the committees, in particular Alan Dukes's Foreign Affairs Committee, are doing good innovative work and the various legislation committees are giving Bills a much more thorough going over - much to the annoyance of some Ministers but to the benefit of the legislation.
This week was a case in point, Michael Woods knows his social welfare inside out and gave Proinsias De Rossa's Social Welfare Bill a very thorough fine combing in the Social Affairs Committee. It was a good debate which got little media coverage, but to Drapier, it was an example of the Dail doing its business in a quiet, professional way. The debate also showed that Bernard Durkan is emerging as one of the very best of the junior Ministers with a thorough grasp on his brief and great common sense.
Drapier's point is that this was a busy week. The Seanad had good debates on the Irish Steel Bill the Refugee Bill and the Waste Management Bill. It also managed an emergency debate on the beef crisis. And yet the perception was that we hall all skived off for the week. RTE even joined in the act by taking off Caroline Erskine's excellent programme, The Week in Politics.
MEANWHILE, Michael D. Higgins found himself at the rough end of what Gay Byrne has taken to calling the Eithne Fitzethics controversy. Drapier is with Michael D. on this one. The whole thing is utterly contrived and smacks of by election opportunism by the PDs. The high moral ground is a dangerous place as the PDs should appreciate and if public spirited people cannot involve themselves in legitimate fund raising activities then we have all come to a pretty pass. The truth is that all of us do our best to get good public spirited people involved in politics, and being involved in politics - requires, among other things, giving a hand with fundraising. If the end result is the sort of treatment Dorothea Melvin got this week then we have reached a new low. It is time to call stop.
Talking of by elections, Drapier has seen nothing this week to change his view that Brian Lenihan jnr will win Dublin West. After a few days on the doorstep and talking to colleagues, the prevailing view is that the contest is creating very little stir among the electorate, with no real issues and a lacklustre line up of candidates. Drapier did not detect any sense of Joe Higgins or Tomas Mac Giolla breaking from the pack at this stage and predicts that no one candidate will pick up sufficient transfers to overtake Lenihan's first count lead. In addition, the Lenihan name should enable him pick up the transfers that eluded Dick Roche and Bev Flynn.
DONEGAL will be a two horse finish between Fianna Fail and Blaney Fianna Fail. Cecilia Keaveney is a good candidate and from a popular family, and with the Blaney vote in decline she could make it a double for Bertie Ahern. Once again it is all down to transfers and is too close to call. Fine Gael made a mistake in not picking a candidate earlier, but by all accounts Jim Sheridan is doing well and, like Cecilia Keaveney, is a good long term investment - something Fine Gael badly needs.
Drapier is sorry to see his good friend, Peter Temple Morris, in trouble with his Leominister constituency party. Peter Temple Morris is one of the best House of Commons friends this country has ever had and his balanced contribution to furthering the peace process is much appreciated by all of us. His is one of the saner voices with access to John Major, but this week we saw the nasty side of the Tory party in action. It should bring home to us the sort of party John Major has to deal with.
Indeed, there was a lot of sympathy for John Major on the question of the electoral system for the North. It is extraordinary how every issue on the North turns so quickly into a question of principle, and this week was one of those weeks when the services of family lawyers rather than politicians might have been more appropriate. At least by pleasing nobody Major left all parties with a grievance and sometimes in the North having a grievance is preferable to having it resolved.
The important thing now is to keep the eye on the bigger game - getting all parties to the all party talks on June 10th. Drapier will not be at the Sinn Fein Ardfheis, but like everybody else he will be watching to see if that party is capable of taking the challenge of peace in its stride. The time for excuses is fast running out and it will need more than programmed responses and ritual Brit bashing to persuade the rest of us there is a real sincerity. Drapier, like everyone else, has no option but to remain hopeful. However, he is not holding his breath.