Let's swap water cannon for decent public health and education

DESPITE the corporate sponsorship which the Government was touting in advance of Bertie Ahern's world grand tour otherwise known as Ireland's presidency of the EU it looks like it will still cost us at least of €60million.

To put it another way, before this month is over, it will have cost us the equivalent of a couple of schools, a few hospital wards and a couple of hundred extra gardaí on the streets.

On paper, Ireland may be the second wealthiest country in Europe, if not the planet, but splurging millions to bolster political egos and electoral advantage is something we just cannot afford.

Security and policing alone will have cost us about €8.5m, and half that was spent on the famous May weekend in Dublin when there was more garda overtime than protestors on the streets.

Any outside observer might have thought Al-qaida had booked the RDS for their árd fheis.

On the same weekend there were more people arrested down around Killarney during a motor rally than there were detained in Dublin. And they didn't have the advantage of PSNI water cannon down in Kerry.

Fine Gael and Labour expressed concern that much of the cost may have been incurred because of informal meetings that produced little of any value, and that Government ministers ran up the cost by holding such meetings in their own constituencies for electoral purposes. As if they would!

Obviously, when it comes to security and policing, the Government has limitless money available to put on a spectacular show for their cronies in Europe or America.

Making the streets safer for the Irish and for ordinary visitors is something totally different, and much further down the scale to judge from future plans. Rather coy about announcing it before the elections, a Garda station which is open could be as rare a sight in the future as gardaí on the street are at the moment.

According to the implementation steering group's report to Government on the review of Garda Síochána structures and organisation, which is still under wraps, there will be serious cutbacks in station opening times because of intended centralisation.

In future, you will have to get assaulted, mugged, or robbed during office opening hours because so many garda stations will be closed. At that stage, it will probably be too dangerous to keep them open.

The report containing this enlightened approach to policing has been in the tender, loving care of our Minister for Justice since about the beginning of the year, but Michael McDowell doesn't feel the country is ready for it yet, and won't be until at least after the elections.

That's around the same time that the opposition parties will wake up to the fact that they're in politics to make a difference. Would you not think that when Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte called on the voters to express their feelings about the Government in the polling booth today, he might have come up with something a bit stronger than "disapproval."

It doesn't exactly describe the depth of feeling throughout the country, which more resembles how Ian Paisley feels about the Pope.

Maybe he was spun out after his verbal ambush of the Ceann Comhairle, but it's unlike politicians to run out of spin. After that outburst, people thought there might have been an opposition in the Dáil after all.

Only cumann members in Fianna Fáil and not even all of them and the morally destitute in the PDs, will be capable of disguising their feelings today.

But in calling on the voters to register their disapproval of the Government, Pat Rabbitte could have spared his vocal cords for when it really matters the next general election.

We know that the Government will get the third degree today, because local elections are notorious for the blurring of party divides. It just remains to be seen from the results which prepared script Bertie Ahern will stumble through. It will probably be the one which starts off, "Any government mid-way through its term can expect a bit of a backlash..."

It's highly unlikely to be the one which reads, "the tremendous showing by the Government parties reflects the continuing confidence the electorate has in the way we are managing the economy..."

In making his less-than-strident rallying call to the electorate, Pat Rabbitte wasn't exactly doing a Padraig Pearse on it, because according to his lights, the only way to register their disapproval was by voting for his party's candidates in the local and European elections.

THERE was an invaluable lesson to be learned from the last general election which was that there was no alternative government on offer. That meant that Fianna Fáil practically had the pitch to themselves and the little Pee Wee party.

It seems that the lesson has not sunk in yet with Pat Rabbitte. No matter how great the "momentum" was behind the Labour campaign, his wish that the electorate would punish the Fianna Fáil-PD conglomeration was not going to materialise from that alone.

He said the public had raised the issue of abuse of power at local level and that the Labour party had a record of honest public service.

So, it is rather perplexing that the semblance of a coordinated, if not united, front emerged. The fact that it did not can to a large extent be laid at the door of Mr Rabbitte's campaign.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny at least made an effort. He advised his party's voters to give Fine Gael transfers to the Labour Party. Unfortunately, there was no quid pro quo from Pat Rabbitte to fuel his zeal to punish the Government.

When it comes to votes, reality descends and bums, especially Labour ones, on council seats are more important than any pact with Fine Gael.

In any case, he said that he expected the electorate to vote against the "awful parties in government" and that Fine Gael and the Green Party would be the main beneficiaries of such a vote.

Predicting a "hammering" for Fianna Fáil, Mr Rabbitte said the party's share of the vote could slump from its current level of 40% to the low 30s, and that would represent the worst result for the party since the 1930s.

Presumptions in politics are a dangerous thing. They led to Fianna Fáil getting a second term in government. They could get a third term next time round if the opposition parties don't get their act together, and at the moment that's the way it looks.

For instance, it was presumed before the general election that the PDs would be "hammered." Instead, did they, or did they not, double their representation in the Dáil?

Does Micheál Martin like crab claws?