Dail Sketch/Frank McNally: He may be "big in China", as Pat Rabbitte suggested, but nobody could accuse the Taoiseach of being big-headed. Answering questions on social housing yesterday, he admitted he was "no engineer, and no architect, and anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't build much".
Yet it was on the subject of the peace process that his humility was most striking. "I'm not an expert," he said of it, "but I have some experience."
This was taking modesty a bit too far, because if Bertie Ahern is not an expert in the peace process, Ian Paisley is a Catholic. You know just how much an expert the Taoiseach is from the way he uses terms like "OTRs" - "On the Run" paramilitaries - an acronym he dropped into the Dáil record several times this week. OTRs are an issue for the British rather than Irish Government, but for Bertie they're a favourite example of the nitty-gritty involved in negotiations, and of the many obstacles on the path to peace.
If Enda Kenny had a favourite acronym, it would probably be "ODCs". These are the "ordinary decent citizens" that the Fine Gael leader says are outraged by the Government's abandonment of the principle of not releasing the killers of Garda McCabe early. But implicit in the Taoiseach's self-deprecation yesterday was a message to the genuine non-experts: that the fixed positions of Mr Kenny's ODCs are an unaffordable luxury in the shifting world of the OTRs.
"If people expect us to bring [the peace process] to finality," he said, "and want every minutiae of the negotiations disclosed with people who are extremely difficult to deal with, I don't think we'll ever bring it to an end."
On housing, the Taoiseach's humility was perhaps less ironic. Bert the Non-Builder was explaining the failure so far to build any of the 10,000 houses promised in the social partnership agreement. Could he fix it? No, he could only provide sites - 6,100 so far - and leave the experts to get on with it. It was at this point that he conceded his own shortcomings in the engineering, design, and construction departments. Whereupon, in an attempt to boost his self-esteem, Mr Rabbitte intervened to remind him he was "good at the old hanging baskets", a reference to one of the Taoiseach's favourite hobbies.
It was the same source who assured Mr Ahern that he was big in Beijing. The two-day visit of the Chinese premier did not go without criticism, however. Trevor Sargent (Green Party) queried whether the Taoiseach had taken the opportunity to "condemn" China's human rights record. To which Mr Ahern, who is not an expert in international diplomacy, but has some experience, replied that he had taken the opportunity to "express concern".
Among the arrangements for Wen Jiabao's visit was the removal of the revolving door from Leinster House's Merrion Square exit - standard practice when world leaders call. That provision at least went without criticism this week. Of the Government's exit arrangements for the Castlerea Four, however, the Dáil has probably not heard the last.