Dail Sketch/Michael O'Regan: The party is over and the anniversary date with the electorate is a just a year away.
On Sunday Bertie Ahern presided at Fianna Fáil's 80th birthday bash in Dublin's Mansion House with an eye no doubt to the election in the summer of next year.
But in the Dáil yesterday, the party mood gave way to a sombre inquest into the Government's troubles on a number of fronts.
A reply from Mr Ahern on its decentralisation woes prompted Labour leader Pat Rabbitte to evoke the kind words the Taoiseach had to say about Charlie Haughey on Sunday.
"At the weekend, I saw the Taoiseach paying tribute to his predecessor, Mr Haughey," said Mr Rabbitte. "If Mr Haughey had uttered the misleading statements to the House that the Taoiseach habitually utters, people would have been marching on the streets." He noted that Mr Ahern had said that "all the civil servants in the various areas" were moving. "In what kind of parallel universe is the Taoiseach living?" asked Mr Rabbitte. "The point is they are not moving. The only items dispersed around the country are electronic voting machines that do not work."
Mr Ahern does seem to exist in a self-imposed parallel universe while listening to questions in the Dáil. He stares downwards, leafing through his brief, raising his head and eyes only when it is time to reply.
This was his expressionless demeanour yesterday, as Mr Rabbitte ploughed on.
"I listened to a radio interview with the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon O Cuiv, in which he illustrated the success of the ADM Ltd move to Clifden. It turned out that no one from ADM Ltd moved to Clifden but that they were new staff there," said Mr Rabbitte.
Mr O Cuiv, his pained expression firmly fixed in Mr Rabbitte's direction, muttered that "we will be correcting that this evening".
Earlier, Mr Ahern said the original timescale for the decentralisation programme was very ambitious.
"However, setting ambitious targets was the best way to drive the programme forward," he added. "If we did not do that, we would not have made such progress."
Meanwhile, as a handful of glum backbenchers looked on, Mr Ahern dealt with the fallout from Monday night's RTÉ Prime Time programme on the accident and emergency services.
When Green Party leader Trevor Sargent raised the remarks made by a doctor on the programme, Mr Ahern lost his cool.
"An English doctor would be best advised to look after his own medical services as the British have experienced and continue to experience many problems," he declared. "I do not need such advice. While I will take advice from the deputy, I will not take advice from such a doctor."
When Fine Gael's Dan Neville suggested there was a lack of hospital beds, Mr Ahern remarked: "Perhaps a different type of bed is needed."
Aware that health is exercising the minds of voters, the still glum backbenchers looked as if their political bed was made of nails.