Fianna Fáil's ard-fheis theme is listening, but most of the motions will congratulate Ministers and avoid all those problem issues. By Eoin O Murchu

The Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, made an intriguing admission recently. Commenting on figures showing that the numbers of students attending non fee-paying schools in Dublin had plummeted, the Minister said that the drift to private education could be directly traced to the decision to abolish university fees a decade ago. Many parents who in the past would have put money aside for their children's university, were instead now spending that money on private education, she said.

On Friday, Rachael English lined up the ingredients for Five Seven Live with great ease: the change of mind of the witness in the Sophie Toscan du Plantier case; vets across the EU meeting in Brussels to discuss avian flu; Shell not bowing to pressure for the offshore thingamajig; poor Charlie Bird horrified in Muzaffarabad (and so would you be); bad water in Ennis (again); the regional papers, sports, farm news, traffic and news and Derek Davis; George Bush's aides engineering a press conference for him (and getting caught) and the blond Bond (no, he's still a man).

Slam Dunks and No-Brainers didn't teach PJ O'Rourke anything new about American slang; indignant and intolerant of language, Leslie Saran's book is a humourless failure

› 21 December1997: Marie Farrell saw a suspicious looking person in Schull around 3pm. Sophie du Plantier called on Marie Farrell's clothes shop that afternoon in Schull. The women did not know each other.

As the Taoiseach's brother, Noel Ahern believes he has the freedom to speak out where other TDs would hold back. Sometimes he can even be a thorn in Bertie's side. By Mary Regan

Dermot Bolger looks at the great, the graphic and the gratuitous on the box this week

Radio Review: Basques, Berets and Bows; Late Night Smooth and Sexy; Book of the Week

TD Watch: Tony Gregory is famous for securing massive investment for the inner city. But the TDinflux of comfortable, middle-class voters in his constituency may cause him problems at the next General Election, writes Mary Regan

RTÉ dwells on Ireland's Catholic past in Altered State; returns to some harrowing stories based in Crumlin hospital and allows a bunch of children to interview famous musicians. By Dermot Bolger