LASTMonday Bertie Ahern delivered one of the most extraordinary speeches of his decade-long tenure as Taoiseach.

His audience was a group of religious leaders from the various denominations organised in Irish society. In short, the event was a meeting of the social partners of the religious world. Ahern's contribution was remarkable not just for its reverential tone towards the Catholic church but also for his decision to 'do a de Valera'. He looked into his heart so as to speak on behalf of the Irish people.

"As a society, and as a government, we treasure the spiritual, and we respect the prophetic role of spiritual leaders, " he asserted.

"Religious belief is at the core and bedrock of the values of a very great number of people in our society, " he said. But the question that went abegging was: should religious belief be central to the governance of this republic?

Ahern answered out of the two sides of his mouth.

"This structured dialogue does not, in any sense, compromise the principle of democratic accountability for policy, " he said. "It is not our role to promote, or to actively protect the role or position of any church or faith, " he continued. Worthy sentiments. But then - as a political leader - Ahern went on to embrace religious inclusion to the determinant of secularism, and pluralism.

He spoke of the huge societal changes in contemporary Ireland without making any gesture to how these changes are redefining the role of religion in society.

In his speech, Ahern also took a nasty swipe at those who see the need for a state and its institutions to be separate from any form of organised religion. "There is a form of aggressive secularism which would have the state and state institutions ignore the importance of this religious dimension. They argue that the state and public policy should become intolerant of religious belief and preference, without rights or a role within the public domain. Such illiberal voices would diminish our democracy, " he said.

He failed to see that many people believe religion should be in the private domain but that the state can engage with religious bodies as it does other interest groups. The state should be neutral on religion - especially so in an increasingly diverse society. One way to acknowledge the recent value shifts and demographic changes would be for the state to get out of the religious business altogether. The preamble and other articles with Christian references in the constitution should be deleted. The Catholic prayer before Oireachtas proceedings should be replaced with a declaration that all members will serve the people to the best of their abilities. The Catholic church's historical hold over education and health-service delivery will ultimately be forced as an issue, but the state should take the initiative. If Ahern's 'Structured Dialogue' is to mean anything, these issues need to be addressed, aggressively.

Oops, he's about to do it again

WOULD you trust a man who wasted upwards of Euro70m in taxpayers' money on a self-styled modernisation project with yet another so-called progressive exercise? Noel Dempsey, the father of the e-voting experiment and now communications minister, is about to seek cabinet approval for a national postcode system.

If introduced it will be a bonanza for the junk-mail industry - to the detriment of the environment.

Labour's Tommy Broughan raised the correct questions last week.

"Minister Dempsey has failed to provide any figures for the potential cost of his postcode plan, " he said. Figures from Euro10m to Euro90m have been thrown out - money that could be better spent in areas of greater priority.

WELCOME to the 'festival of resistance'! Next weekend Dublin plays host to the 10th annual Marxism conference. The organisers say "hundreds of Irish leftwingers [will] gather" to discuss global warming, health reform and a host of other issues. Among the leftwing brigade will be economic pundit David McWilliams (LEFT) who will debate 'class and the celtic tiger'. Ringside seats now available.

Day T minus 13 inD�il house

THIRTEEN more days. In all likelihood that is all the time left before the D�il shuts down for the general election.

Next week's sitting will be followed by a week-long St Patrick's holiday break which in turn will be followed by three straight working weeks (a three-day sitting week) into the fortnight recess for Easter.

If TDs return after Easter then that day, Tuesday 24 April, may well be the day Bertie Ahern pays his trip to Mary McAleese to officially declare the general election underway.

There is a backlog of important legislation which is now unlikely to make its way into law before the D�il is dissolved. Certainly, with only 13 days left, it will be interesting to see what legislation is given priority as D�il debates are cut short and early votes called.