DRAPIER has previously bemoaned the fact that Leinster House would seem to be becoming more irrelevant as the years go by.
Drapier suggested previously that never was this so well illustrated as the time when this present Government overturned, within a few days, the original decision to vote down the Dublin Light Rail Bill.
Readers will recall that speakers on all sides of the House warned trenchantly that the proposed light rail for Dublin would cause extreme difficulties both in its construction and subsequently in its operations.
Michael Lowry and the Government paid no attention to this and ultimately, after the first hiccup, voted through the Bill and the matter is now afait aceompli. Drapier previously warned of potential chaos, but very few other voices suggested caution.
Now, out of the blue comes Dr Garret FitzGerald. In three articles in this newspaper he gave his views at length, basically stating that the light rail project would be disastrous. Drapier wonders why he did not come out sooner.
Did he not make his views known to Michael Lowry or indeed some of his other Fine Gael colleagues? Drapier thinks his contributions would have been far more relevant had he made them before the passing of the Act.
Some members of the Opposition who cried caution were berated and accused of being anti-progress. Now Garret FitzGerald is made out to be the "knight in shining armour" for those in opposition to this project.
Also in this newspaper Kevin Myers starts his article "Thank God for Garret FitzGerald, he has said about Luas what I feared to say". Bruce Arnold stated that Garret was "still on the right track". Where were all these people over the last while when this matter was being discussed in great detail, culminating in the passing of the Act?
Michael Lowry, when questioned, said he welcomed Garret's contribution, and why wouldn't he. He knows as well as the rest of us that FitzGerald's contribution is all too late.
Of course, he will state (as he has already) that FitzGerald and anyone else who wishes to make a contribution can take part in the public inquiry. Most of us who have experience of public inquiries know full well that there is no going back on this one.
Drapier knows there is no fight left in those in Leinster House who spoke out against this system. Which brings Drapier back to his original point no one paid attention to those voices of elected representatives who cried
"caution". The "commentators" sat up and took notice immediately when Garret gave us the benefit of his sums. So much for the relevance of Leinster House.
LAST weekend, a number of newspapers stated, referring to the beef tribunal that it was a tragedy that it was allowed to take place at all.
Drapier thinks that some commentators have very short memories. Some of those same papers added their voice to the clarion call for such an inquiry. A few in Leinster House called for caution and wondered where it would all end uncertainly have their Drapier wonders would it not be appropriate to surcharge all those who were party to the holding of this tribunal. Pat Rabbitte even went so far as to suggest that the tribunal terms of reference were not such that a complete investigation would take place.
No doubt we will all be wiser in the future, or will we? Throughout the run up to the beef tribunal and during the fall of the last Government, there was a very strong political thread, which at the time may not have been that obvious, but which certainly becomes more apparent as time goes by. Some politicians have a lot to answer for.
"What was it all about?" That could also refer to the recent resignation of Dr Eddie O'Connor from Bord na Mona. His problems arose from the suggestion that his pay and salary exceeded Government guidelines.
But now we learn his successor, Paddy Hughes, is getting "slightly in excess" of those same guidelines. And yet the State (or should we say the taxpayers?) paid large six figure sums to consultants and advisers in order to get to the bottom of the allegations against Dr O'Connor.
Someone should be made answerable for all of this. Despite all the hullabaloo everyone walks away (reasonably) happy. Just like in the beef tribunal.
ONE of the most alarming pieces of news this week was the revelation that at least nine days after the passage of the Proceeds of the Crime Bill through the Oireachtas it still had not been signed into law.
Maybe it is not the "done thing" to question the President, but Drapier feels that questions must be asked as to why it took her nine days to sign this piece of legislation into law.
There may very well be a good reason, but we in Leinster House passed this Act, in good faith, on the basis that it would be signed into law immediately after its passage in Leinster House.
Indeed, many of us felt this Bill (which has the effect of freezing assets of known criminals) should have been passed into law within days of the Veronica Guerin killing.
Now reports are stating that whatever ill gotten gains the drug barons and criminals had have already found their way out of this country.
The first few sabre rattles among the Government parties occurred on the Morning Ireland airwaves on Wednesday when Fine Gael's Phil Hogan and Labour's Joe Costello staked their parties' claim to the "benefits" of a booming economy.
On the one hand, Hogan wanted tax cuts for the hard pressed taxpayers, whereas Costello wanted any budgetary excess to be distributed among impoverished areas.
Listening to them, Drapier felt that rather than falling out with each other, Fine Gael and Labour will probably come up with some compromise to suit both. However, Drapier would warn they would appear to be forgetting the lessons learned in the late 1980s that prudent governments, when they have some money, should accumulate for the rainy days. Drapier has no doubt those are not too far away.
One indication is the threatened interest rate increase which will send a very cold chill among the general public. Similarly, Drapier warns that while Hogan and Costello and company may be lauding the "benefits" of a booming economy they seem to be forgetting that a lot of our exporters are struggling under the yoke of an ever increasing differential between the punt and sterling.
Drapier didn't make it to the Olympic home coming celebrations. Bernard Allen, Minister for Sport, was totally in order when he berated the Olympic Council and BLE for the debacle. But Allen's intervention in this long, running dispute reminds Drapier of the story which hit the headlines a number of months before the Olympics.
Mr Allen, his wife and children and a friend of his children were (all expenses paid) guests of the Olympic Council and Delta Airlines in Atlanta, supposedly to view the preparations for the Olympics.
At the time the trip was resolutely defended by Allen and Pat Hickey, head of the Olympic Council. Drapier wishes Mr Allen all the best in his efforts to bang heads together between Hickey's OCI and the BLE.