THERE were major red faces in the Labour Party last week and they had nothing to do with the Evening Herald's photographs of a street-drinking Pat Rabbitte. The embarrassment involved the revelation that one of the Labour leader's senior advisers had been convicted in court of tax offences and had been named on the latest defaulters list from the Revenue Commissioners.

A Labour spokesman said, "This matter relates to earnings while Feargus O'Raghallaigh was self-employed prior to the 2002 general election and before he took up his current position on the Labour Party staff. There was no question of tax evasion or avoidance in this case. There was a failure to return the required tax forms."

A check call to the Revenue revealed that a person convicted of nonreturn of tax forms gets plenty of attention. Four months after missing the first deadline for filing the tax return, a formal reminder letter is issued. This is followed by a series of phone calls and even a home visit. If there's still no response the case is then referred to a solicitor who will give 21 days' notice of a court summons. In all it can take up to a year before the court case is heard.

No Labour TD was willing to go on-the-record this weekend. "It is a matter for Pat, " was the standard response. O'Raghallaigh worked as an adviser to Rabbitte during the Dirt inquiry after the 1997 general election.

Should TDs earn their pay?

THE Dail and Seanad adjourn for a near threemonth summer break next Friday. It's hard to understand why the national parliament cannot sit until the end of July and then return in early September. A six-week summer recess would seem reasonable. With another two weeks at Christmas and a similar break at Easter, TDs and senators would then work a 42-week year as legislators. The Taoiseach was at pains last week to defend his ministerial colleagues.

They should, however, get no additional praise for simply doing their jobs, especially given their generous salaries. The combined annual earnings of cabinet members now tops 3m. It might be time to consider some form of performance-related pay for politicians with salary bonuses and deductions based on attendance, voting record and speaking contributions.

This week, when the opposition parties sound off about the length of the summer recess maybe they could publish an alternative working calendar for the Dail and Seanad which they'd work should they get into power. The current regime means important legislation takes an age to work its way into law and, in general, makes a mockery of political life.

ONE interesting aside to last week's mayoral election in Dublin was the success of Aodhan O Riordain in securing the position of deputy lord mayor.

Given the two voting blocks had split evenly in the mayoral contest, it was a surprise that O Riordain, a Labour councillor, won the second contest by a single vote. In fact, his victory came with the assistance of SF's Killian Forde who decided to break ranks with his party colleagues who backed Eibhlin Byrne of FF. Forde decided to abstain, a decision that gave the post to the Labour man.

McDowell sticks both barrels to FG

HE'S been in the wars over the last few weeks, but the justice minister hasn't lost his biting edge. Twice in the Dail last Wednesday Michael McDowell saw opportunities to poke fun at Fine Gael, the party which he was a member of until 1985.

First up, McDowell commented on the separate personal intruders proposals from Fine Gael and PD senator Tom Morrissey. "Apropos of last night's debate, a wit said to me that, as far as he could see, the difference between the two Private Members' Bills was that the Progressive Democrats were willing to have people shot in the head, whereas Fine Gael members were concentrating on shooting themselves in the foot."

Fine Gael's Jim O'Keeffe considered the remark, "a sick joke" while Labour' s Brendan Howlin noted that McDowell would "have to go further to find someone with a sense of humour".

However, a few hours later McDowell was again displaying his particular brand of humour when pointing out apparent policy differences between Kathleen Lynch of Labour and Gerard Murphy of Fine Gael.

"I will merely say that it is the first sign of a major fracture of opinion.

Perhaps Deputy Murphy will agree that the cynic in me is possibly justified in saying that this division is a reflection of the parties' task of securing different segments of the electorate's vote. Deputy Lynch will be the bleeding heart and Deputy Murphy will wear the jackboot. They will be happy then."