DRAPIER/An Insiders Guide To PoliticsThis column began with health some months ago, and as it comes to the end of the Oireachtas term it's going to end with health too.
Finally, two of the long-awaited three reports are out - the Prospectus Report and the Brennan Report, with Hanly (leaked yesterday to The Irish Times) to follow later. The launch, the documentation and all the surrounding details have been handled well.
Of course, the abolition of the health boards took the moral high ground, and it is important psychologically that it should.
Much emphasis has been placed on the fact that the health boards have been set up for 30 years, and that the system has to change and to modernise.
But looking back beyond the 30 years it is difficult to imagine the county system which then ran the health of the nation - each county being responsible for its own health needs under the aegis of the l county council.
The McKinsey Report was ushered in by the late Erskine Childers. He was very keen on his new ideas and toured the country telling everyone about them, just as Micheál Martin now proposes his own Odyssey.
Amid all the hype one startling financial fact emerges. The projected tax revenue from income tax this year, 2003, is €9.3 billion - gross expenditure on health in 2003 will be €9.15 billion.
That financial fact alone should halt the gallop of many of the critics. Clearly this Government has put huge money into the health service, but no government could continue that rate of expenditure without modernisation of structures. This is what now lies ahead - better value leading to better patient care.
Yes, there is muttering among the politicos who are on health boards, and of course there would be because of the way they will lose patronage.
This, of course, is coming on top of the abolition of the dual mandate, and the removal of the power on some environmental matters from councillors to the county manager. Painful lessons all around, but old shibboleths are finally being worn away and not before time.
The Taoiseach finds himself presiding over wide areas of reform - in local government, now in health and later on in the Seanad. All these reforms face uphill climbs and difficult challenges, but the Government has four years to succeed.
Final advice to Micheál Martin; keep your eye on the prize and particularly watch out for the daggers from your own side. The prize is worth getting, and he will go down as the Minister who genuinely set out to achieve reform. A cheer for Charlie McCreevy too who was determined on behalf of the taxpayers that cash could not keep going into a bottomless pit unless there were genuine structural reforms proposed and carried through.
********
The whole cost of insurance is fast becoming a hugely contentious issue. There is real anger at the enormity of the cost, particularly among small and owner-run businesses.
The Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise and Business had a session this week, where the Irish Hotels Federation made a strong and eloquent vocal submission.
There is a growing sense of unease about the matter, and the Tánaiste is coming in for heavy criticism over the delay in bringing forward the legislation and other related matters. Mutterings can be heard from deputies and senators from all sides.
The PDs are seeking to put some clear blue water between themselves and Fianna Fáil prior to the local and European elections. Yet this has two sides to it because in turn Fianna Fáil is seeking to put clear blue water between itself and the reductions in Community Employment jobs and the growing insurance shambles (both PD areas of responsibility). The compensation culture is rife and it will need strong-arm tactics to deal with it.
Drapier has no doubt that Mary Harney will be well able for the fight, but the battle should begin now before many small businesses go to the wall.
*********
Preparations for the local and European elections continue to concentrate minds. Fianna Fáil and some of the smaller parties are pressing ahead with local conventions and it was thought that Fine Gael would be doing so too. However the Michael Ring challenge has thrown them a bit even though they clearly say that he is going it on his own. Their conventions will not really take place until the autumn.
It is good to see that the interest in local democracy and the abolition of the dual mandate is invigorating hopefuls around the country. There was always resentment that the TD or senator had the first news so to speak from Dublin, or came running with the prized letter from the Minister where the local councillors had to await their turn.
There is some evidence throughout the political spectrum of nepotism but not as much as had been expected. Again delegates to conventions have their own views on such matters and are increasingly confident of expressing them.
News from the European scene is still vague. Yes, we know who is retiring but it is unclear who will be going forward. People are unwilling to take firm decisions in the absence of the redrawn European electoral boundaries. It will not emerge until autumn.
Dublin is looking interesting, with the news of the two sons of two former Fianna Fáil titans; Sean Haughey and Eoin Ryan the sons respectively of ex-Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and the late Senator Eoin Ryan. The Greens will have to overcome the ignominy of Ciarán Cuffe's shares but Patricia McKenna will be their standard bearer. It is expected Proinsias De Rossa will be for Labour, but Fine Gael has yet to make up its minds.
********
So we have a new transport Messiah in the country. He is the president of the Madrid metro, Prof Manuel Melis Maynar, and he was in Dublin this week having a meeting with Seamus Brennan and addressing the Oireachtas Joint Transport Committee.
It's good news that the metro is back on track and can be built within a year. All this hype makes the Rail Procurement Agency look foolish, but Drapier would inject a note of caution. It won't be that easy to ride roughshod over the environmental impact studies, appeal rights, CPOs, property owners, etc., and all this combined with a strong compensation culture - not to forget the snail on the Kildare by-pass! Full marks for effort though.
Interesting how Europe doesn't seem to have been overly intrusive as Spain carried out its metro work. Watch out for full recourse to Europe from "concerned" citizens here!