Drapier has never been one for the Budget Day hype. For the most part, the House and its members are merely the backdrop, with the real action taking place in the TV studios with assembled armies of interest group professionals, all singing for their supper and filling the airwaves with tedium.
It was no different this year, and with so much of the details known in advance the House was low-key and there was little excitement or buzz to be found in the corridors or in the visitors' bar. There were plenty of accountants, taxation experts and the odd captain of industry around the place, which makes Drapier's case that Leinster House was a dull place to be last Wednesday.
Not that Drapier blames Charlie McCreevy for any of this. Drapier has long been an admirer of Charlie McCreevy, admiring his guts, his independence of spirit and outspokenness, and, perhaps most of all, his sheer sense of fun. In an increasingly monochrome political landscape Charlie McCreevy represents one of the few bits of colour around, and long may he continue to do so.
Drapier has found Charlie to be a little over-serious of late - too much dieting, Drapier thinks, and perhaps not seeing enough of his older and less reputable friends - but he didn't put a foot wrong on Wednesday. It was a good Budget, as everyone knew it would be, and no matter what formula the Minister came up with there was bound to be criticism and the odd bit of begrudgery. Drapier has long been of the view that the only budgets people remember are the bad ones.
Ernest Blythe's shilling off the Old Age Pension was never forgotten; Sean MacEntee's harsh 1953 Budget dashed his hopes of ever becoming Taoiseach and lived on in the memory for years; Richie Ryan's tenpence on the pint was neither forgotten nor forgiven, while John Bruton's tax on children's shoes brought down a government. Good news, on the other hand, is taken for granted and quickly forgotten. Gratitude is not a commodity in oversupply in the world of politics and it is Drapier's view that the goodies in this Budget will be forgotten well before the festive season takes its toll. Grievances, of course, are a different matter.
The hardest job on Budget Day, at least on a Good Budget day, is to be leading for the Opposition. Drapier has to disagree strongly with the learned leader writer in this newspaper that Michael Noonan performed badly. Drapier enjoyed his performance and felt it confirmed his own view that Noonan is regaining much of his confidence and his appetite for politics after his traumatic period in Health, an experience which would have destroyed a weaker person. Incidentally, Drapier hears that Brian Cowen is keeping his distance from some of the senior people in that Department, preferring to seek his advice elsewhere. Drapier, for one, can't blame him.
But back to the Budget: the biggest Opposition gripe was that it was not their Budget, as it could and maybe should have been. Drapier had always argued that a late autumn election was the Rainbow's best bet and that it should have been preceded by the sort of Budget we had on Wednesday. But that was then and this is now, and while Drapier could sympathise with some of his Rainbow colleagues, he saw little point in pursuing what is now merely an academic point of discussion.
Drapier, meanwhile, noticed the Government's U-turn on the funding of political parties. The legislation of the Rainbow government will now stand. Drapier never took very seriously the huffing and puffing of the then Opposition parties on this issue, but had begun to take it seriously when Noel Dempsey spoke out in recent times. Now it appears as if he has been overruled by his colleagues, and Drapier takes with a pinch of salt the excuse that the Government would not get the legislation through the House. As far as Drapier can ascertain, the Independents were not even consulted on the matter and were merely used as a smokescreen to cover the U-turn.
Drapier has mixed feelings. The more he sees of the new regulations governing the disclosure of funding, the more he realises we have created a bureaucratic nightmare for ourselves. The new regulations bristle with traps for the unwary and will require huge time and accounting skills to operate.
Drapier knows his view is shared by many colleagues on all sides who look with trepidation to a future dominated by form-filling and record-keeping of a most exigent kind. In Drapier's view, it is time to look again at the issue, and this time to strive after simplicity rather than the complicated structures we have put in place.
Now is the time to do this, at the start of what is likely to be a stable period in politics and with the political temperature reasonably low.
Drapier greatly regrets he was not in London this week with his colleagues at the British-Irish Parliamentary Body meeting. This was the first outing for the new teams from both sides since the recent general elections, and the feedback to Drapier has been very positive indeed. Michael O'Kennedy has settled in very well as the new Co-chairman and puts his experience as a Minister and European Commissioner to very good use.
From what Drapier heard, the British-Irish body has carved out a useful role for itself and has been particularly effective in ensuring that British MPs have a firsthand opportunity to hear the view of all parties in the Oireachtas - and this time all parties means all parties since Sinn Fein's Caoimhghaigh O Caolain is also one of the Oireachtas delegates. But how could it not be a success with the irrepressible Mike Burns, everybody's favourite journalist, acting as majordomo to the body?
There was genuine regret on the part of Irish delegates that Peter Temple-Morris was no longer a member of the British delegation - having resigned from the Conservatives, he lost his place on the body as well. Temple-Morris is one of the great gentlemen of British politics, and no backbencher has done as much to foster good relations between the two countries. At crucial times during the peace process he was of particular help and he has always ensured that the British point of view was put with courtesy and honesty. He has ensured, too, that within the Conservative party reactionary voices were not given a free run.
He should know that his efforts over the years are greatly appreciated in here.