While we were waiting for white smoke from the Fine Gael rooms, Drapier was reflecting that it has been a second good week for Ruairi Quinn and the Labour Party.
And not only because the main Fine Gael noises were offstage. Quinn embarrassed the Government into taking on board Labour's Code of Conduct for membership of the Dail.
He also goaded Bertie Ahern into sullen silence on Ned O'Keeffe's continued tenure at Agriculture and Food.
When Nora Owen initially fluffed her response to the surprise initiative by the Ceann Comhairle, Seamus Pattison, designed to stifle the capacity of the opposition parties to create trouble for the Government on the daily order of business, Quinn was clear-headed and firm. Labour would not wear the proposed change and would not be railroaded into a charade on Dail reform until Fianna Fail withdrew its entirely unnecessary proposal to substantially increase electoral spending.
If Nora Owen initially misread the implications of the Ceann Comhairle's surprise initiative, Bertie Ahern quickly moved to embrace it, feigning hurt at the requirements made on him by the House since becoming Taoiseach.
Both parties in the Coalition were embarrassed by the Labour Party decision to devote its Private Members' Time to a code of conduct following on the Lawlor affair. Liz O'Donnell had earlier seemed to threaten her own initiative in the matter. Bertie and his front bench, in accepting the Labour motion, knew that the obligation had been on the Government to give a lead and the opportunity had been missed.
Bertie, while managing to run the obstacle course of Haughey, Burke, Ellis, Foley and Lawlor and come out at the other end seemingly intact, nonetheless finds it difficult to take the actions that the situation requires.
Similarly on the Ned O'Keeffe affair, the Taoiseach seems unable to act. Very few in here believe Ned will see another week from the inside of the Department of Agriculture and Food. And yet sullen silence is the best that Bertie could muster in response to Quinn's probing. In fact, when the controversy first blew up Bertie could have chalked up brownie points if he had then and there asked his Government to dismiss O'Keeffe.
But that's not Bertie's way. It was Burke, not Bertie, who made the decision to decamp. Similarly, Denis Foley and Liam Lawlor had to apply for semi-detached status. Whatever you do, don't tell me something I don't want to hear.
The attempt by Seamus Pattison to further straitjacket the opposition parties may seem like an in-house matter but it is nothing of the kind. This concerns the traditional tolerance allowed the Opposition to raise issues of topical concern and hear the Taoiseach's response.
This Taoiseach has been good at anticipating the issues and frequently comes into the chamber with a scripted response at the ready. If the practice has attracted criticism down the years it has been because it has been seen as too restrictive. Seamus Pattison now proposes to enshrine further restrictions in Standing Orders.
Gradually, over the years that Drapier has been here, the power of parliament has been eroded and the power of the executive extended. The conventions governing how the Opposition holds the Government accountable are seen to be more and more ineffective or out of date. The latest move seems designed for a quiet life but at the risk of Dail Eireann being seen as less relevant.
It will be interesting to see how the new Fine Gael leader, Michael Noonan, will respond to the situation created without warning by the Ceann Comhairle and in the midst of a contest for the position traditionally described as the leader of the Opposition.
Noonan may not be an especially popular choice in some quarters but he is the most effective and experienced choice. He is a skilful and competent politician with the necessary political ruthlessness to trouble Bertie Ahern. In set pieces he can rise to the occasion, as he has demonstrated on more than one occasion on Budget Day.
Charlie McCreevy may well have been the author of most of his own misfortunes but undoubtedly he was discomfited by the Limerick man's ability to locate his Achilles heel. Whether Noonan can coax a better performance from his party colleagues than John Bruton managed to do remains to be seen.
Ironically, his biggest challenge will be to bind the very real wounds in his own party. It was worth noting that even towards the end of the contest senior figures in the party such as Sean Barrett and Maurice Manning declared for Enda Kenny.
Nonetheless, Michael Noonan's majority was sufficiently convincing to signal that the party knows it must unite behind the new leader.
Jim Mitchell managed to take time off from campaigning to welcome Northern Ireland Assembly members who comprise the Northern Ireland Public Accounts Committee led by UUP member Billy Bell, a former Lord Mayor of Belfast, and Alliance Party leader Seamus Close.
It now seems on the cards that the role in Dublin envisaged for Mitchell by Michael Noonan will not allow for his continuation as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
It could yet be a week when the Fine Gael succession stakes will cause senior mandarins to break out the port.
The decision by Micheal Martin to release confidential papers to the blood tribunal deserves commendation. It was an extremely angry Martin who engaged with Liz McManus on the same issue on Thursday when she demanded that he do precisely that. Whatever considerations prompted the change of heart, the decision is most welcome.
