Both the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste were absent on Tuesday when Business started and it fell to the Minister for Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Michael Woods, to take their place.
Normally, when someone other than the Taoiseach takes the Order of Business the Opposition see this as their chance to make hay while the sun shines. Any Taoiseach in this situation has the information required at his fingertips (because he is doing it day in, day out) whereas someone new to the situation is normally unsure of themselves.
Michael Woods handled himself well. Both John Bruton and Ruairi Quinn saw a potential chink in his armour when they questioned him about the requirement for legislation to do with prisoner releases. Michael was ready for them and read from his brief which said that the legal advice to the Government was that further legislation was not required.
Bruton and Quinn were in like a flash, accusing the Government of a breach of faith in that it had been indicated in the Belfast Agreement that legislation would be brought forward in this regard. Michael Woods had some uneasy moments until the Ceann Comhairle intervened and demanded that we move on to the next business.
The cudgel was taken up by Bruton and Quinn on Wednesday when the Taoiseach returned from Cardiff. What followed were rather tetchy exchanges between the Taoiseach and the other two Opposition leaders.
Basically the Taoiseach said he was not going to bring in legislation just for the sake of it. He maintained that all the powers were already present. However, Bruton and Quinn pressed him, insisting that the agreement specifically gave such a commitment.
Before the Ray Burke affair the Taoiseach was untouchable as regards the peace agreement, but recent events have invigorated the Opposition in their attacks, even on this issue.
The Taoiseach was on firmer ground in his intervention in the Garda pay issue. Where John O'Donoghue had floundered for a number of weeks, with Charlie McCreevy not making his position any easier, in came the Taoiseach over the weekend like the cavalry to the rescue. It seems that after only two days of intervention, matters have taken a turn for the better.
Pat Rabbitte, on the Order of Business on Wednesday, was cutting to the quick when he thanked the Taoiseach for taking John O'Donoghue out of his discomfiture. John could only grin and bear it. Bertie Ahern always had the name of being a great navigator, but maybe it's becoming clear that it is his timing that's his forte.
Drapier noticed that the Fianna Fail parliamentary party en bloc had a two-day meeting during the week in the salubrious surroundings of the Slieve Russell Hotel in Cavan. They were reported to be discussing the future, and why shouldn't they, Drapier asks, in that they must wish to forget the past very quickly.
Get-togethers such as this (known in the industry as "away days") have become very popular in recent times, in that they give the party troops an opportunity to take stock, particularly since it is just over a year since the general election.
Mary Harney certainly hit the headlines this week with her statement on the unemployed. She has promised tough action from September for anyone who refuses certain options. Proinsias De Rossa was out quickly, claiming that Ms Harney was endeavouring to reclaim ground with her constituency (big business) because of her rebuff to them on the minimum wage issue.
Drapier read recently that the PDs intended to move away from their right-wing policies and towards the centre. But her recent statement on unemployment shows that the PDs haven't made the transition just yet.
Mary tends to get into trouble shooting from the hip as she did at the general election on the lone-parent issue. Drapier wonders if her latest pronouncement will damage the Government. After the last Budget it was regarded as being a Government of big business; this latest outburst from Mary has done nothing to dispel this perception. Drapier wonders what Bertie and Fianna Fail think of it all.
In the last number of weeks Bertie and Fianna Fail have had to bite their tongue while Mary and particularly Dessie O'Malley clambered on to the high moral ground over the Ray Burke affair. Indeed, the discipline of Fianna Fail has surprised Drapier, in that virtually none of the troops has come out castigating Coalition colleagues for their public pronouncements.
SOME might say they had no option but to keep quiet in view of the issue involved, but the discipline they have shown is a big change from yesteryear when constant sniping between the two was the order of the day.
The other big issue of the week was the publication of Dr Roderick Murphy's report on the swimming sexual abuse. Some may think it strange that Jim McDaid placed the report before an Oireachtas committee. Indeed, John Bruton found some fault with this.
But the Taoiseach said this was to prevent defamation actions against anyone mentioned in the report. Bruton quite rightly pointed out that accusations can only be defamatory if they are untrue. All in all, the issues raised the even greater question of what other potential time-bombs there are, not just in Irish sport but in Irish life generally.
The Brendan Smyth affair more or less pulled down a government, and these cases increase in numbers. It is surely time for some formal, recognised procedure to be put in place so that all these issues could be dealt with. Drapier is thinking of some sort of judicial commission which would sit permanently.
This would get over the difficulties regarding the publication of the Murphy report, and it would also give the victims and their families reassurance in their time of distress.