It was the Dail production of A Christmas Carol, with the Taoiseach's brother-in-law cast as the ghost of Christmas Past, and the Progressive Democrats playing the ghosts of Christmas Present.
Certainly, the PDs were absent from the chamber when the Minister for Finance - as ever playing the part of Scrooge - attempted to explain how a relative of the Taoiseach had been appointed six Christmases ago as an appeal commissioner and had now emerged as the man who dismissed a £2 million tax assessment against C.J. Haughey.
But the junior coalition partners were present in spirit; at least according to Pat Rabbitte, who advised Mr McCreevy that his answers were important not only to that side of the house, "but to the four absent deputies watching on the monitors".
It was with those ghostly eyes upon him that the Minister attempted to reassure the Dail.
He might as well have said "Bah, Humbug," as far as the Opposition was concerned, however.
Twice, Deputy Rabbitte urged him to "stop blathering and answer the questions"; while, when he protested he hadn't had time to look up the appeal commissioner's file before coming into the chamber, John Bruton reached for his Bible, declaiming: "There are none so blind as those who will not see".
Then the Fine Gael deputy P.J. Sheehan made a late and dramatic entry into the debate when he missed his step and stumbled on the chamber stairs. But this lesson on the dangers of first steps was almost lost in the outbreak of general heckling.
This did not suit the seasonal mood, however. And when the Minister rejected Opposition suggestions that he had been "forced in here by the PDs," insisting he was answering questions at the behest of the Ceann Comhairle, Deputy Rabbitte restored some of the Christmas spirit, by remarking: "I too believe in the tooth fairy."
In one of the more serious moments, Labour's Derek McDowell reminded TDs that the Taoiseach had once spoken of the country's need for "a Lester Pigott". Great horseracing fan that he is, Mr McCreevy could have told him that he'd picked the wrong jockey to compare with Mr Haughey: with his legendary ability for clearing fences and his sometimes controversial use of the whip, the former Taoiseach has always been more of a Tony McCoy. But if the Minister was possibly thinking about other kinds of jockeys altogether: like the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, watching him somewhere on the monitors.
