It was Tony Blair who best summed up the basic difference between being in government and twiddling your thumbs in opposition. When you're in government, he said, you wake up every morning thinking, "What will I do today?" When you're in opposition, you think, "What will I say today?"

The problem with John Gormley is that over a year since he made history by bringing the Green Party into power, he still hasn't learned that basic lesson.

The Environment Minister is still one of the best talkers in Irish politics. But as the flooding disaster of the last few weeks has proved, words aren't much good to people whose lives have been ruined by the Government's shocking lack of preparation for what should have been a largely predictable situation.

Until yesterday, of course, they didn't even have words. For several days there was nothing but an ominous silence from the minister's office, despite the fact that he was only a short distance away in Wales. Now that he's finally back at his desk, he has some fairly fundamental questions to answer.

For a start, why did the Government spend just €23m last year on flood-relief schemes when, by their own admission, it will take almost €400m to make the country fully prepared for the kind of torrential rain that's destroyed this year's summer?

Target

Does Gormley really expect towns and villages to live with the risk of serious floods for another two decades while he and his colleagues leisurely reach their target?

What kind of compensation can the victims of this disaster expect? The last time we saw floods on this scale, in 2002, the Green Party loudly demanded that the Government should foot the bill for its own negligence. Can we assume that's still Gormley's position?

Above all, why is the Government spending huge amounts of money on buying carbon credits to offset ministerial air flights and comparatively little on immediate problems in their own back yard? What exactly does this say about their priorities?

After putting his wellies on and sloshing through the water-sodden streets of Carlow yesterday, Gormley had two basic responses. First, he said it was all down to global warming -- thereby exploiting the crisis to drop a none-too-subtle hint that the Greens have been right all along (in fact, even RTE's own weather forecasters are sharply divided on this issue).

Second, he declared that the Government would bring forward the publication of a climate change adaptation strategy. This will apparently set out responses to the more severe weather patterns expected to occur in the future, as well as analysing their impact on drainage systems, flood plains and coastal defences.

This sounds nice, but then promises of reports always sound nice. The problem with this Government has always been that they prefer commissioning reports and studies to taking concrete action. That's largely the reason why the health service has been allowed to drift into chaos over the last few years. If Gormley doesn't stop talking and start legislating soon, that's exactly what'll happen to his department too.

Record

His record so far is not exactly encouraging. On a whole range of issues from waste management to noise pollution, the minister's official position is "under review". He sometimes gives the impression that he's so obsessed with saving the planet, the problems of a small, damp island on the edge of Europe are beneath him.

At the last Green Party conference before the General Election, John Gormley famously said: "My friends, I cannot bear the thought of another five years in opposition." A normal person might reasonably have deduced that he was desperate to get into Government and do things.

Now would be a good time to start.

- Andrew Lynch