DRAPIER: It probably seemed like a good idea with the Dáil in recess after the bank holiday and the nation's teenagers settled into exams, to publish the Government's end-of-year account of its performance.
Alas, one man's trumpet is another man's foghorn. Eighty elaborately-produced pages of self-assessment served only to rouse the sleeping giant of the Opposition, affording plenty of ammunition for return of service.
A cranky media took great umbrage at the style rather than substance of the event. I suppose expecting to escape without allowing questions to Bertie or Mary Harney was a tad ambitious. In retrospect, it might have been more savvy to list the good, the bad, the unachievable and the possible in equal measure rather than go for the now traditional audit of claimed achievements. An increasingly steely-eyed electorate and cynical media have little patience for spin these days.
Now that the fees row is out of the way, Noel Dempsey is off on a more benign crusade, that of reviewing the Leaving Cert. Drapier feels he deserves a bit of a break after such a public mauling by the PDs. There would be widespread popular and political support for some creative tweaking of the current inflexible regime, which fails so many kids. Strange how once a row is becalmed, one moves on to fresher pastures.
As the year rumbles on, issues come and go, but one consistent gripe is dissatisfaction with the health services. Three major reports (Hanley, Prospectus and Brennan) are awaited and due shortly for consideration by the Cabinet. The big test for the embattled Micheál Martin will be what bullets can he persuade his colleagues and himself to bite in the context of reforms. Will it be one at a time or a big bang approach? The bottom line should be what difference will be seen and felt by the public. Ideology may be redundant on this one. The leftist free universal health services approach favoured by this paper's correspondent does not find much support in Irish political circles, even among the left!
Labour abandoned universal health insurance in the heat of the general election and Fine Gael also pulled back. So, while the Opposition roast the Government over all the well-known ills of the health service, they offer no coherent alternatives. It's far easier and less work to savour the Government's discomfort and make political hay. The fellow on the hospital trolley in an overcrowded Accident & Emergency is hauled out for every argument. Hard to beat in terms of emotion.
For all that, Micheál Martin has a point when he argues that almost a million people are treated in Irish hospitals every year and most people's experience is good. Doesn't cut much ice when the hard case (trolley) is thrown out on Joe Duffy. Everyone knows that money alone won't fix the problems. This year's health budget is €9 billion, three times as much as it was in 1997 and up 12 per cent on last year and still the waiting lists and the trolley men persist.
For the media, it's all great copy. Many of the stories are fear-based; some are false. There was even a claim that due to overcrowding, the mortuary in Tallaght Hospital was being used for Accident & Emergency patients! This story did the rounds, and was even regurgitated in the Dáil by Labour's Liz McManus in outraged tones. It contained a fraction of truth, in that a room formerly used for storage of dead bodies on arrival at A & E was now being used for living patients. But don't let the truth get in the way of a good story.
After all the upset about SARS, which was most regrettable but understandable on public health grounds, the excitement is really building up for the Special Olympics. Politicians have been warned off capitalising on photo opportunities in these games and in fairness most deputies will oblige. In contrast, campaigners and pressure groups are seizing a golden opportunity to highlight inadequate services for people with disabilities.
Speaking of which, Drapier is most unhappy at the continuing failure to address funding shortfalls for people with intellectual disabilities and autism this year. Whatever about hanging tough with vested groups such as consultants, prison officers, pharmacists, lawyers, and even teachers, in the cause of controlling public spending, there is zero appetite for toughness with the disabled sector.
In Drapier's view, the €19 million shortfall in funding needed for emergency cases and extra day places for young adults should be found for Minister Tim O'Malley this year from somewhere in the €9 billion health budget.
Not before time, the lobby has galvanised itself into a coherent movement and it is drawing strong support from deputies on all sides of the House for an overdue recognition of its unmet needs. Overall a major standoff is looming between the State and this sector.
Michael McDowell, Minister for Justice, has set his face against the rights-based approach for socio-economic rights and can expect support from Cabinet colleagues, particularly McCreevy, on the grounds of unsustainable cost.
Drapier thinks there must be a middle way between the absolutist rights-based approach, which requires a blank cheque from the State at the direction of the courts on the one hand, and the unhappy status quo of unmet needs.
Drapier is a big fan of McDowell, who is turning out to be a great Minister for Justice. But he should recall the ghosts of Ministers past, who were too legalistic in dealing with a vulnerable group in society. Disability could become what Hep C was to Michael Noonan. Maybe the long fingering of the new Education for Persons with Disability Bill to replace Mary Wallace's withdrawn offering before the election indicates that some creative thinking and drafting is going on. Drapier hopes so.
Across the water, deputies are shocked to see Tony Blair on the ropes for the acts and omissions of British military intelligence briefings on Iraq. Eyebrows raised all round at the House of Commons inquiry! Look how long it has taken to extract the truth of Bloody Sunday - not to mention the shocking facts exposed by the Stevens Inquiry recently.
Hilary Clinton's exposures will be compulsive reading in Leinster House this month. It will help pass the late sittings, including Fridays, scheduled from now until the summer recess.