Drapier: If the Rev Dr Ian Paisley of the DUP does a deal with the devil of Sinn Féin/IRA next week, then the killers of Detective Garda Jerry McCabe will be freed.
Drapier will wait a bit longer to see the Doc shake hands with the devil, notwithstanding the barely containable excitement of Tommie Gorman, RTÉ's half-correspondent, half-player in the peace process.
Drapier noted the clarity and bluntness of the Taoiseach's reply at Leaders' questions. Such articulate precision is seldom given by Bertie Ahern to either Pat Rabbitte or Enda Kenny. Instead, it was clear from his diction and deliberation that the Chamber was being used to send a direct message to the army council of Sinn Féin/IRA, both inside and outside the Dáil, notwithstanding the Government's previous written and verbal assertions that the killers would not be freed.
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Drapier expected far more from Biffo than the mild Budget performance which he delivered to an expectant House on Wednesday. The body language and the mood in the Chamber was revealing. Mary Harney sat passively through the 45-minute address. Brian Cowen will not give her the comfort or ideological succour which she used to get from Charlie McCreevy, who is now, in the best African tradition, exiled to Brussels.
The Taoiseach clearly had other things on his mind and his ill-disciplined and uncharacteristic heckling of Richard Bruton and Joan Burton were indicative of this.
Michael McDowell hates to be challenged and he retorted angrily to the Opposition's clear analysis of the high burden of tax on ordinary workers. But the facts were in black and white in the published tables. One-third of all earners will be paying tax at the higher rate of 42 per cent against the promise to confine that number to one-fifth.
It is a clear case of not a lot done and much more to do.
Michael Smith sat bravely up in the back benches, beside Beverley Flynn and behind the Labour Party. It was his first time in that isolated zone, far away from the power of the front bench, and his unhappiness showed.
Richard Bruton put in a very good performance as the first Opposition deputy to respond. It is a hard task to listen, analyse and prepare cogent remarks in such a tight time-frame, but he did it well.
At least half a dozen of his sharp observations found their mark with Government Ministers.
While Drapier finds her tone sometimes hard to take, he had to admire Joan Burton's analysis, delivery and ability to land a tough, sharp political punch.
There is no doubt as to who will succeed Bertie Ahern. Even though he was low-keyed and not as expansive as some people had been given to expect, Brian Cowen has politically seen off any of the possible rivals for the leadership battle, whenever it comes, especially Micheál Martin and Noel Dempsey. Drapier is nearly as long in the House as Brian Cowen, but he does not remember a Budget day on which there was no vote, but then there were no excise or tax changes to be made on the day.
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The Greens had a Private Member's Bill this week and, because of the Budget, the second part was taken on Wednesday morning. Drapier was surprised to hear Labour's Ruairí Quinn speak so knowledgeably and passionately on the question of access to the countryside, the problems of farmers' and owners' liability, together with the need to legislate for the right to roam on our island's uplands.
It seems that he now has time to do a lot of hill-walking, and it showed. Drapier knows, from his friends in the tourism industry, that this is an important sector, as we are slipping behind our neighbouring countries of Scotland and Wales.
Sadly, the arrogant dismissal by the relevant ministers, Dick Roche, recently appointed to Environment, and Eamon Ó Cuív, in Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, was not encouraging.
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The talk around the Members' Bar from Drapier's colleagues was the sudden media shyness of the domesticated south-of-the-Border Sinn Féin representatives. There was a time when Mary Lou seemed to be on every programme and Aengus Ó Snodaigh or Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin would pontificate with magisterial authority.
The talk this week was of how they had gone to ground because of the conviction and imprisonment of one of Ó Snodaigh's constituency workers for membership of the IRA.
This story will not go away, and the longer the Sinn Féin politicians attempt to hide, the more it will become the first question they will have to face every time they go on air.
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The whispers along the corridors inform Drapier of another defection from the ranks of the so-called Independent group of deputies.
The ex-Fianna Fáil independently-elected TD for Clare, James Breen, seems set to return home.
The prodigal political son has smelt the wind. His impotence as an Independent has got to him and the talk is that he is responding to the wooing of him to come back to the party.
Is it any wonder that the Progressive Democrats are not so ebullient as they face up to the prospect of being surplus to political requirements.
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Drapier notes that Martin Cullen has admitted that his process of getting Waterford communications consultant Monica Leech appointed as a communications specialist in the Department of the Environment in July 2002 was not open to the proper tendering procedures, but that a process was carried out in November 2002, and this she won.
Ms Leech is paid €1,200 a day, more than a Minister, and possibly as much as the Taoiseach. So far, she has netted €300,000 for less than two years' work. How many more Ministers have communications experts in their Departments? Seeing payments on this scale must be very demoralising for the many civil servants who are being forced to leave their present jobs, their homes and their families in the name of decentralisation.