Are the political elite up to the mark?

Do you know the difference between your White Papers and your Green Papers? Can you explain the Proportional Representation voting system?

Well fear not because politics as a subject could soon be put on the secondary school curriculum in Ireland.

A proposed syllabus for the subject is being finalised and will be presented to Education Minister Ruairi Quinn for examination.

It will be up to the Minister whether or not it is included as a subject in the Leaving Cert.

Early drafts of the proposed syllabus include the difference between left wing and right wing politics, globalisation and cultural theory.

Let's take a look at some candidates who could prove to be excellent politics teachers and those who would be lucky to get a pass if they were doing it in the Leaving Cert.

THE GOOD:

DR GARRET FITZGERALD
Known as ‘Garret The Good’, his knowledge of political history in Ireland is second to none. He has served as Taoiseach on two occasions and is revered in political circles for his depth and knowledge of politics.

SEAN O'ROURKE
The RTE News At One presenter is the media’s answer to Jaws as no politician goes unscathed when he is in command. When it comes to questioning and probing, he has no equal.

MARY ROBINSON
Ireland’s first female President is the perfect person to teach people all about the Constitution. She may have only served one term as President but her global reach since then has been fairly impressive. She has served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and is a member of the prestigious Elders - a group of world leaders convened to contribute their wisdom, leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems.

VINCENT BROWNE
The Dark Knight of late night politics on TV3, Vincent has had more than his fair share of political scrapes in the past. His classes would be livened up by the numerous rows and debates that would be guaranteed par for the course.

SHANE ROSS
The Independent TD knows how to get to the bottom of a bureaucratic minefield (just look at the work he did with FAS). When it comes to explaining the finer points of politics, he would be hard to beat.

THE BAD


BERTIE AHERN
This is the man who, when he was Minister for Finance, didn’t even have a bank account. Despite being Taoiseach for 11 years, we now know that he was living on ‘Planet Bertie’ for most of that time. His classes would descend into farce.

JACKIE HEALY-RAE
He would be a perfect teacher for a class who want to know the difference between a pot hole and an overgrown ditch. But when it comes to debating issues of national importance, the South Kerry man always lost his voice.

BRIAN LENIHAN
Lock up your Communion money because Lenihan could direct those nasty bullies from the ECB to come in and take it off you. He would be more suited to teaching creative writing than politics.

MICHAEL LOWRY
The Moriarty Tribunal didn’t believe a lot of what he was saying, so it is unlikely that Leaving Cert students would.You could argue Lowry has enough political experience to pass on to students but the Tribunal dealt his credibility a blow.

GERRY ADAMS
If the Sinn Fein leader can’t come clean over whether or not he was a member of the IRA, then how can he teach the youth of Ireland about politics? His students would doubt every word he says - and that would make his job next to impossible.

Tips from Ed of the hacks pack

IT is hard to keep a gang of Political Correspondents quiet for any period of time but when Edwin Chen is in the room, you could have heard a pin drop.

So just who was this stranger who popped into Leinster House on Tuesday as the guest of the Oireachtas - he is the closest thing that Leinster House had to US President Barack Obama himself.

Edwin is a journalist with over 40 years experience and has worked as Senior White House Correspondent with Bloomberg News. He was also the president of the prestigious White House Correspondents Association.

He was on a flying visit to Dublin and popped in to regale some of the Leinster House hacks with stories of his time covering three presidents - Clinton, Bush Jnr and Obama.

And his view on Obama’s impending visit to these shores next month - it will do him no harm in sweeping up the Irish American vote in the presidential election next year!

The best thing about his job, according to himself, was telling people that he was a Senior White House Correspondent.

Can you imagine an Irish Political Correspondent saying the best thing about their job was, ehmm, being a Political Correspondent? Don’t think so!!