Ballinspittle was not mentioned. But the moving statues were back to haunt us from the dismal '80s, when floating alabaster provided the only cheer; unless you were one of those who had spirited your funds away in a bogus non-resident account.
The statues provided a consistent metaphor for the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Jim Mitchell, who is examining the mysterious movements of a more mundane substance, money, and the even more mysterious addresses of certain so-called non-resident account holders.
Those assembled yesterday to testify told us that to open a non-resident account, you could eavesdrop at cattle marts and pubs, where such was "a matter of common discourse", according to Mr Maurice Doyle, former secretary of the Department of Finance.
Much as the moving statues phenomenon, it was basically a rural problem, he said.
Pat Rabbitte specified: you could try Raphoe or Swinford, or perhaps Miltown Malbay, or even Castleisland. But he could not understand why the Dortmund dentist or the retired colonel in Dorset with cash to deposit would seek out Swinford.
They would not, Mr Doyle replied, unless they were Irish.
And the government of 1983 had paved the way, he went on. They had sent "a clear pellucid signal" to the Department of Finance and Revenue that non-resident accounts were fine without affidavits signed by their owners.
There were other ghostly reminders of the past, such as the feared spectre of "flight of capital", and the "black hole" that swallowed up the money which had left the country: "and nobody seemed to be quite sure where exactly it was going, or who was taking it out or what, in fact, was the total quantum of it".
But you could still find "the publican, the farmer, the baker, the candlestick maker" who had paid their taxes.
Had they all been suffering from inertia, asked Mr Sean Doherty. The chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency, Dr Michael Somers, replied that inertia was a significant factor in the way people managed their finances.
Except for the movers among us, of course, who long ago tidied up theirs in the knowledge that the State was in worse shape than what Mr Doyle called the "basket-case economies" of Brazilian and Poland.