THE new Dail session opened with a whimper, not a bang, as the opposition parties failed to seize the initiative and allowed John Bruton to dictate the shape and content of the opening exchanges on Northern Ireland.
For a man who should have been on the defensive after his American adventure, during which he had talked up the prospect of a new IRA ceasefire and a breakthrough in the multi-party talks, the Taoiseach appeared to be in total control. He even took time out to lecture Mr Ahern and Ms Harney on political strategy and the need for positive thought.
Mr Bruton clearly enjoys being Taoiseach. And he has grown into the job. The cosmetic improvements, in relation to grooming for public occasions, are the least of it. The bumbling image is gone. And he emerges in the Dail as a serious, thoughtful and committed politician with deeply-held views.
Neither Mr Ahern nor Ms Harney laid a glove on him for the best part of an hour during Wednesday's opening exchanges. The new Dail session was expected to set the tone for next year's general election. But the journalists who turned up to record the opening salvoes were bored to distraction. Where was the fire and vision of the government-in-waiting?
"Uninspiring" was the word used by some observers to describe the performances of Mr Ahern and Ms Harney. And few would quibble with it. After all, they had the advantage of setting the questions the Taoiseach was required to answer. But in the political maelstrom of Northern Ireland affairs, nothing is ever easy or simple.
NOBODY has forgotten the Dail criticisms of Albert Reynolds during the lonely months of 1994 when he held open the door to an IRA ceasefire. And no opposition leader is likely to repeat those mistakes.
So when Mr Bruton "hoped" for a renewal of the ceasefire and quoted Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness on the need for negotiations to take place in a peaceful atmosphere, Mr Ahern and Ms Harney gave him room.
Mr Bruton went on to justify his statements on the grounds that a public debate was required to educate all republicans in the logic of the peace process, which required an end to violence if Sinn Fein was to be involved in a political settlement. The last ceasefire had collapsed, he said, because the leadership had not re-educated their people to accept their analysis.
Mary Harney sniffed at the notion of the Taoiseach being so naive as to believe that logic informed the actions of the IRA. But there was no cutting power in her interventions.
Fire kindled in Mr Ahern when he accused Mr Bruton of "spreading fatuous optimism around the world about a ceasefire". But the flame snuffed out as Mr Bruton dangled the prospect of a visit by Bill Clinton to an EU/US Summit in Dublin and spoke of slow progress at the multi-party talks in Stormont.
Across the water, John Major spoke to Irish journalists of the need for Gerry Adams to take a more active leadership role. And he talked of "progressive arms decommissioning" taking place during all-party negotiations. But it might not be enough.
Mr Ahern put a new formula on the Dail table. The British government would have to accept, the Fianna Fail leader said, "that decommissioning will not take place alongside talks, but will occur at the later stages." Mr Bruton ignored the gambit.
Government business brought the Divorce Bill, which Mervyn Taylor hailed as a major piece of legislation. And while Michael Woods and Helen Keogh spoke of the needs to strengthen family courts and to provide counselling, it was all one-way traffic. A challenge to the Government's authority was slapped down by a healthy margin of 12 votes.
EVEN when Fianna Fail activated its BSE motion and cried for the poor beef farmers, they weren't really getting through Everybody knew there was a crisis; had been since last March; and everybody knew that John Donnelly's demand that "innocent" farmers should be fully compensated, while maintaining existing levels of output, was for the birds.
Cereal and root crop farmers never had it so good, but there were votes to be gained by Fianna Fail in the beef sector. Brian Cowen led the charge for higher EU compensation. But, given Fianna Fail's aspiration to be in government within a year, he was short on specifics.
By yesterday, Fine Gael backbenchers were fighting back. They sympathised with beef farmers, but argued that new market realities had to be faced because European consumption had fallen by 20 per cent. It was time to get real. There was no point in "codding the farmers" into holding on to their cattle in the hope that prices would rise. What would happen, Paul Connaughton asked, if "a frozen mountain of beef overhung the market next year?"
Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats were on happier ground when drugs, crime and law and order surfaced briefly. And Ray Burke and Liz O'Donnell got in their licks on a number of Ministers. Later, Seamus Brennan and Dessie O'Malley complained about the giveaway price negotiated by Michael Lowry for the sale to KPN Telia of a 20 per cent slice in Telecom Eireann. But, for bored journalists looking for a new angle, it was a case of: "been there, done that".
There were, it is true, a few tasty raisins in the cake baked this week by Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats. But it lacked yeast and failed to rise. They will have to do better between now and Christmas if Fine Gael, the Labour Party and Democratic Left are to be denied an opportunity to wrest back the initiative.
