A foreign visitor to the Dáil yesterday might have wondered which was a bigger threat to the State: the IRA or the NRA. Both organisations attracted sustained criticism, as Opposition TDs continued to query the cost of the former's commitment to peace, while stopping just short of a demanding a ceasefire from the latter.
The National Roads Authority even found itself dragged into the AIB scandal, when Joe Higgins lamented that senior bankers were about as likely to be appear in court as "those poor stone-aged men that the NRA is digging up every second week". More seriously, Pat Rabbitte lamented the authority's "unerring instinct for building roads across heritage sites". And his complaint drew some sympathy from the Taoiseach.
In another good month for job figures, Mr Ahern noted that the archaeological profession was one of Ireland's "fastest growing areas of employment". Even if the NRA avoided areas like the Hill of Tara, the boom in the digging sector was bound to cause problems. And if it wasn't a building or monument in the way, the Taoiseach lamented, it was "a plant, grass, or snail".
Maybe he was still thinking about the NRA's excavation problems during Leaders' Questions, when twice he mentioned "the foundation of the State". But by then the subject had moved on to the killers of Garda Jerry McCabe, and their prospects for release under a new deal in the North. Yes, said the Taoiseach, it would have to be considered, but only in the context of an end to all paramilitary activity, something elusive since the State's foundation.
Enda Kenny suggested the Government had been successfully "blackmailed", while Pat Rabbitte wondered if the issue had been a "pawn on the chessboard" to extract minor concessions from Sinn Féin. But the Taoiseach, a grandmaster of negotiation, stressed again that the prisoners would only feature in an endgame.
Earlier, the Minister for Defence returned to the stand and again used an f-word. Questioned by Dinny McGinley (FG) about the "forgotten" role of Irish soldiers in the Congolese Battle of Jadotville in 1961, Mr Smith confirmed that an Army inquiry had been established. Under further pressure from Mr McGinley, he promised there would be no "foot-dragging". Everyone heaved a sigh of relief, and Mr Smith's question-time passed off without further incident.