Dáil hustle bustle

Our political masters have returned to work in Leinster House with all the enthusiasm of recalcitrant Leaving Cert st...udents who have enjoyed their summer but know they have a tough year ahead of them.
Around Kildare Street on the first day the Dáil resumed there was a distinct air of nervousness among Government backbenchers. To get inside the place they had to dodge a host of protestors, complaining about everything from the location chosen for the new Mountjoy prison, to homelessness. The homeless protest was truly inspired: about 25 people having spent the night on the street outside the Dáil to bring attention to their plight. Even the earliest-rising Government figure couldn't have avoided them as they slept out on pieces of carpet.
On the day the Dáil returned, opposition TDs had a field day being photographed with all the groups outside on the streets. Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte continued where they had left off at the Ploughing Championships the day before, and emerged together to meet with the large group who arrived to protest at Michael McDowell's plans to move Mountjoy to the green field site at Thornton Hall.
But not one Government TD was to be seen. In the not-so-distant past a few brave souls would have ventured out to see at least what was going on. But not last week.
Summers can be a really bad time for governments. With little of real new value on the agenda, the most ridiculous thing can take on a head of steam and ruin political reputations. With no courts or Dáil business, journalists focus on whatever comes along. I remember one summer during the Rainbow Coalition, when Michael Lowry made allegations about a golden circle and claimed that he was being followed. The story just grew and grew, and in the end it put paid to Lowry's political career. If he had remained just a fairly anonymous new minister, he could still be there for all we know.
Who could have foretold that this year's silly season would come in the shape of a diminutive Corkonian standing on the cheapest-looking television stage anyone could cook up? But it seems that Eddie Hobbs has really hurt our politicians, especially the Government backbenchers, who are looking very nervous indeed.
Over the summer, the fact that we are being ripped off left, right and centre seems to finally have hit home with the electorate. Rip-Off Republic got it wrong on several issues, but at last the prices and taxes we are being forced to pay have reached centre stage in the minds of the media and of the electorate. Funny that Eddie Hobbs all but ignored the greatest rip-offs in this country. So-called professional fees are higher here than almost any where in the world. Legal fees are multiples of what you can expect to pay in Britain. Doctors of all shapes, pharmacists, auctioneers, engineers, architects, consultants of every type, are all ripping us off, protected by self-policing regulating bodies whose only real interest is who they can squeeze the next buck from. Throw in the growing number of stealth taxes and you can account for a large proportion of the high costs we pay.
Include then the cost of government waste, projects which cost multiples of what had originally been estimated. The Kilkenny Flood relief scheme, Cork Courthouse, the Cliffs of Moher Interpretative Centre (a souvenir shop from what I could see during the summer), refugee accommodation (land bought and never used), Eyre Square, Media Lab Europe, the Port Tunnel, the M50, the toll bridge... I could fill the page with examples.
But it seems that at last we are going to wake up to what is going on and force politicians to do something about it. Early last week there was real fear in Government circles about what the Comptroller and Auditor General might come up with in his report. A few bad examples of Government prolificacy with our money and they might never have recovered. But, as one Government figure put it to me just before the report was published, “It's not too bad, there's a lot about Media Lab.”
That particular chicken won't come home to roost for some time, until the Public Accounts Committee get their teeth into it. In the meantime, the coalition will be casting around, looking for ways to slay the ghost of Eddie Hobbs. They will go for the easy targets, but don't be fooled. The real rip-off happens not when you go to the corner shop to buy a bottle of milk. It's when you buy a house, get sick, or have anything to do with the professions that you end up paying through the nose.
Fergal Keane is a reporter with RTÉ radio's Five Seven Live