In spite of all the pre-season hype, this Dail session has yet to ignite. Maybe it was all the disruption associated with the move to the new offices or maybe it's because there is so little legislation about, but we have yet to see any of the expected fireworks as we face into the prelude to an election.
The dearth of interesting legislation is stunning. Much is promised but little enough has found its way into either House. In a way it's the same old story: departments holding onto legislation until late in the session in the hope of rushing things through. It's one aspect of Dail reform that needs looking at - how to ensure a steady flow of legislation rather than the stop-go, dearth-glut nature of the present operation.
In any event, there was little enough to get excited about in the Aviation Regulation Bill or the National Pensions Reserve Fund Bills, which have been ploughing their way through these past few weeks. Meanwhile, up in the Seanad, all they had to sustain them was the Second Stage of the Dumping at Sea Bill. Even those intrepid mariners Tom Fitzgerald and Ernie Caffrey could do little to raise the temperature on that one.
So it was back to the set pieces - the Order of Business, Question Time and Private Members Time - to put some flesh on the week's work. Since the start of this session there has been a more disciplined and purposeful approach to Dail business by both Fine Gael and Labour. More thought is going into preparing for these events and the expectations are high that damage can be inflicted on a vulnerable administration.
So far, however, little enough has been. Defences for the most part have held. As a result Private Members Time has been the main battleground. This week Fine Gael used its time to debate the Omagh bombing. It was an important debate, especially since the Houses had voted some of the strongest powers ever given to any government in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity, and it was important to know how these powers had or had not been used. It was important too so that the survivors and the bereaved know that the pressure would be kept on to ensure that whatever justice can be done will be done; and if not, it will not be for want of trying.
It was a good debate. Brian Hayes, the first of the Bruton Babes, was calm and steady. Liz McManus spoke particularly well for Labour and Caoimhghin O'Caolain put the Sinn Fein case as well as that case can be put. The only strange note was the defensive and at times petulant tone of John O'Donoghue - different in almost every respect to Brian Cowen who spoke before him and attracted praise from all sides of the House for his contribution.
Is the pressure getting to John O'Donoghue? The scourge of Nora Owen in opposition is now so sensitive to criticism that he takes it personally and questions the motives of those who seek to ask the questions it is their right and duty to ask, and which he was never shy about asking in opposition.
While that little scenario was unfolding, Jim McDaid was in the Seanad, where his impatience with the Olympic Council of Ireland once again surfaced. Jim is not the first minister to take on Pat Hickey, but he has a stronger hand of cards this time than any of his predecessors enjoyed and has all-party backing. This time Drapier believes it will be a fight to the finish.
Meanwhile Bernard Allen threw a spanner in the sporting works with his announcement that Fine Gael would scrap the new National Sports Stadium at Abbotstown. There were no ifs or buts about it - it was as clearcut a decision as you are likely to get in politics. Certainly there are serious questions to be answered about the project: are the costs out of control, what about the hidden costs like the provision of new State laboratories; has the GAA any intention of using the new facilities when it will be put to the pin of its collar to fill Croke Park often enough to pay off the debt there, and what happens if Eircom Park goes ahead? Are we just building a stadium for the Irish Rugby Football Union or is there a genuinely sustainable vision in the whole project?
Tony Blair inherited the Dome from the Tories and made it his own. He even managed to attract corporate partners. And look what happened. There is no sign yet of any rush by the corporate sector for the Abbotstown project, but one way or other Bernard Allen's move has forced the issue back centre-stage where it deserves to be. It is an issue which needs to be debated, especially the question of priorities - whether it is better to invest the money in sports facilities and coaching around the country or go for one big statement.
In Drapier's view it's time for the Dail to give the whole project the type of scrutiny it has not got to date, and bring in the main players to one of our committees and put all the arguments on the table. Drapier is not so sure this will happen. Bertie Ahern's mind is made up and he is fully determined to push ahead, but our committees have been getting more teeth of late and Drapier notices a new determination on the part of many TDs, both Government and Opposition, to further expand and strengthen the workings of our committees. This is one issue which is crying out for detailed committee treatment.
This week too we saw a taste of what lies in store for all future governments, and indeed, for the present one. On the one hand, the Celtic Tiger is flying ahead: 100,000 new cars in Dublin alone this year, with two months still to run restaurants and hotels booked out, holiday homes in Spain selling like hot cakes, not a flight to be had for the bank holiday weekend.
On the other hand, Aer Lingus is in total chaos, reaching a level of ungovernability that is frightening to behold; the secondary teachers are as militant as Arthur Scargill's miners ever were; the health services are sucking in money with no visible signs of improvement. And that's to say nothing of the traffic chaos, and the house prices that remain impervious to the best efforts of Bacons One, Two or Three.
Drapier is not the first to comment on the strange mood in the nation today. There is a deep level of discontent and an underlying anger that won't go away. The tribunals are the backdrop and the confirmation of what many people feel. Charles de Gaulle used to say of the French that "they are not an easy people to govern". We may well be going the same way.
Finally this week it was good to see Jim Mitchell back. Jim is a great advertisement for politics and it is good to know his appetite and zest is greater than ever.