Peaceful surroundings, law-abiding community (few sightings of local gardai), children turfed out of pubs on the stroke of the hour, smoke-free area.

Panoramic views from elevated site on the highest moral ground.

And so the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, and his spouse, Professor Niamh Brennan, have found themselves embroiled in a controversy about which they knew absolutely nothing until alerted by Sky News.

Leaving Dublin really should carry a health warning for the PDs. Remember Mary Harney's helicopter jaunt to open an off-licence? And Bobby Molloy's political demise resulting from his over-zealous interest in a constituency matter?

Now it's the turn of the Archbishop of Political Correctness, who has taken a tumble just down the road from a place called Strokestown.

Just why Mr and Mrs McDowell should want to leave Dublin for their annual outing has surprised most of us here in Leinster House.

Wouldn't you think that a small sea-fronted semi in Sandymount, or something modest in Bray, would have been more suitable? At least they could have nipped home every day to issue the latest instructions on how Ireland (community and corporate) could smarten itself up.

There hasn't been as much sniggering in Leinster House for ages since last Monday evening, when the Sky scoop broke on TV screens. You could smell the glee oozing from the newsprint the following morning (and newspapers are supposed to be objective?).

But then, wouldn't the journos take some small pleasure from the "luxury holiday home'' story - coming as it did just two days after McDowell's promise to establish a Press Council. You don't get better timing than that. The financial status of the McDowell family is none of our business. Or is it?

They would say that it isn't - but the rest of us are damn sure that it is. So we are now plunged into a debate about privacy.

And down in Co Roscommon, you can be sure of the following: today, dozens of families will take their Sunday drive to visit the high moral ground where the holiday home is at an advanced stage of construction.

They will gawk at where Michael and Niamh and their corporate cousins and legal pals will sip their Chablis as they watch the summer sun set further west.

Not only that but, here in a part of Ireland that has seen little evidence of the Celtic Tiger, the local community will monitor, for quite some time to come, just how much the McDowells spend in the area. Will the furniture, furnishings and electrical goods be transported in containers from Dublin?

Will the wine cellar be stocked from the regular supplier in Ranelagh? And with all those windows, sure, there's no one in Roscommon with the staff to take on that cleaning contract.

The perceptional problems for Michael and Niamh have been escalating in recent times, and it is now evident that they have little in common with the "little people'' of Ireland (just look at the size of the holiday home). In addition, they have a grating and increasingly frequent habit of lecturing us on a range of issues.

The planning issues that Roscommon County Council have raised are real and genuine. Those problems have resulted from a failure to adhere to the permission the local authority granted. That's it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

This story is unlikely to slip off the news pages until the planning problems have been resolved. And the speediest route is for the owners to apply for retention.

It is most likely that their application will be granted, as this is the norm in such matters. But the problems of Michael and Niamh won't be banished so easily. Michael's political career has been a bit of a rollercoaster in the past, to say the least, and. . .well . . . let's just see.

For Professor Niamh Brennan, the country retreat episode is one that she could have done without. Over the course of her academic career, she has lectured on a range of topics.

Brennan has never been shy about her lofty views concerning the low-life of corporate Ireland, where she seems to think that governance is completely ignored.

When Charlie McCreevy commissioned her to compile a report on the health sector, she duly obliged, and we all thought that was the end of the matter - until she informed the nation that she had contacted the VHI to enquire as to why they had not implemented her recommendations!

Nothing like modesty for pushing business, eh?

At this stage, though, let's be kind and leave Michael and Niamh to enjoy the comforts of their new holiday home. But only on one condition: they must never again admonish anyone who, when confronted by controversy, seeks to defend themselves by claiming that they didn't know what was going on.