DAIL seats are more than usually on the minds of politicians storing up body fat over the Christmas for the long haul of a general election that they believe cannot be distant.
As the poet Patrick Kavanagh remarked, posterity has not printed its banknotes yet, but there are a number of events in 1996 that are already haunting the Rainbow Coalition as it faces the country.
With the exception of the invitation to lunch with the Minister for Finance controversy which involved Labour's Junior Minister, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, and another fund raising embarrassment implicating Mr Niall Stokes, chairman of the Independent Radio and Television Commission, it was Fine Gael ministers that were at the heart of the year's most contentious political events.
Mr Ruairi Quinn and Ms Fitzgerald underwent the ignominy of apologising to the Dail in March after it emerged that, on behalf of her Dublin South constituency, she had written to business people inviting them, to a £100 a plate lunch. There, she said, they would have "a rare opportunity" to meet the Finance Minister as he put the finishing touches to the Finance Bill.
Shortly afterwards, Labour blushed again. Mr Stokes angrily denied any conflict of interest between his role as IRTC chairman and his involvement in a fund raiser for the Arts Minister Mr Higgins, who appointed him. Mr Stokes's name had appeared on a circular giving details of a "race night".
Given what lay ahead in terms of fundraising controversy, the episode was pale enough. Other ghosts to shadow the Government through its election campaign arose from the administrative blundering and political ineptitude that surrounded the hepatitis C scandal; HIV blood contamination; the BSE crisis and the delisting of Judge Dominic Lynch. All involve Fine Gael ministers.
MICHAEL NOONAN
THE Minister for Health will surely be glad to see the back of 1996. The death in October of a Donegal mother of 12, Ms Brigid Ellen McCole, brought the dormant hepatitis C scandal into sharp focus and lifted the lid on the suffering endured by women infected with the virus. It also forced the Minister to do an amazing volteface by announcing the establishment of the Hepatitis C Tribunal of Inquiry.
The tribunal is still seeking to establish how up to 1,600 people were infected with hepatitis C through the antiD vaccine manufactured and distributed by the Blood Transfusion Service Board. Allegations of a cover up and accusations of cynicism in the wake of Mrs McCole's death swept the Dail after it emerged that her lawyers had reached a £175,000 settlement with the BTSB just hours before her death.
The Government tried to isolate the problem. After moving from a position of stating that a tribunal would "serve no useful purpose, Mr Noonan found himself having to set one up. However, just as his change of heart seemed set to save him, he blew it all in the Dail by attacking the late Mrs McCole and her lawyers and prompting members of Positive Action, the group representing women infected with the anti D vaccine, to storm out in protest He apologised within hours.
The BTSB would cause Mr Noonan further troubles this month when a health worker in Kilkenny became the first person in Ireland to be infected with the HIV virus through a blood transfusion. He announced an investigation and an optional HIV testing programme to track down the untraced blood "issues".
NORA OWEN
THE Justice Minister, who had been fighting an uphill battle since gaining office, found herself in even more difficulties over the delisting of Judge Dominic Lynch from the Special Criminal Court - i.e. removing him as a judge of the court.
On August 1st, the Cabinet had agreed to delist him but, unfortunately, nobody told him. As a result, all judicial decisions he made for three months after that date where deemed to be unsound and 16 high security prisoners had to be released, rearrested and recharged.
It emerged that Judge Lynch had written to Mrs Owen twice enquiring about his position and the Attorney General also sent her two letters asking if the judge had been notified of the Cabinet's decision. Only one of the Mr Dermot Gleeson's letters reached her and she was not made aware of the others.
As far as the Opposition was concerned, Mrs Owen's position was untenable and on November 12th, she faced a confidence debate in the House. Labour and Democratic Left stood by their colleague. She announced an investigation by Mr Sean Cromien, a former secretary at the Department of Finance and a consultant, Dr Edmund Molloy.
Their investigation report did not disclose the identities of officials involved in the letters' fiasco, did not apportion blame for it and said merely that the letters trail ran into the sand.
IVAN YATES
IN the same month, November, controversy engulfed Mr Yates over a partial Russian ban on beef. A delegation of Russians hammered out a deal in the VIP lounge of Dublin Airport, banning beef purchases from counties Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan because of an increase in the incidence of BSE. In an RTE interview, Mr Yates gave the impression that he had been there but it soon became clear that he was, in fact, attending his constituency clinic on the crucial Saturday. The row was quelled only by Mr Yates making a personal statement in the Dail.
MICHAEL LOWRY
THE mother of all controversies to strike the Government, but particularly Fine Gael, came this month with the Ben Dunne/Michael Lowry affair.
A story in the Irish Independent by Sam Smyth disclosed that Ben Dunne had paid over £200,000 for an extension to the home of Mr Lowry, Mr Bruton's chief lieutenant in Fine Gael and his Transport, Energy and Communications Minister. There was no immediate explanation as to why Mr Dunne paid for the work on the Minister's home - and, 36 hours after the story appeared, Mr Lowry was forced to resign. It took him three weeks to offer an explanation, as the Dail was about to adjourn for Christmas.
As the House rose, Judge Gerard Buchanan was sifting through the names of 1,500 people who were listed in a Price, Waterhouse report as having received payments from Ben Dunne. The public was by now aware that seven TDs, as well as the Fine Gael and Labour parties, had received contributions from Ben Dunne or Dunnes Stores.
The question remains why?