It was a busy week, with major events happening all round and a lot of business taking place in the Houses - not that much of that business found its way into the media. Nor will it stop some of the absentee pundits pontificating about the irrelevance of much of what we do. C'est la vie.
The committee system, in particular, is taking off. We probably have too many committees and a few amalgamations would not be out of place, but most are taking their work seriously and are starting to get results. Watch out in particular for Sean Doherty's investigation into CIE, where we can expect something substantial, especially if the committee can stop some of the internal leaking.
The world knows by now of the Public Accounts Committee, but Drapier has more in mind the workaday committees - Foreign Affairs, Health and Children, Agriculture, European Affairs and, as already noted, Public Enterprise and Transport being the best examples. Bit by bit the committees are flexing their muscles, to the obvious discomfort, not of ministers, but of some civil servants who often convey the impression that parliament is merely there to rubber-stamp the decisions of the Civil Service and Government.
Meanwhile, to the week's main issues. The ASTI strike is finally spluttering out. It was a nasty business from start to finish and now it takes its leave of us, in the words of the old Leaving Cert poem, "unwept, unhonoured and unsung".
It was a strike whose consequences will long be with us. The ASTI members may make some financial advances, the proposed teachers' forum may successfully address some of the non-pay issues, and benchmarking - be it a placebo or a panacea - may do something, but no sane person doubts that the standing of the teaching profession has been damaged, relations with parents soured and many students left with a sense of grievance.
It would be easy to spread blame for what happened. While no political reputations were made, most politicians behaved responsibly. That at least is the perspective from in here, but as we know from the strikes in 1947 and 1986, teachers have long and unforgiving memories and may well be waiting in the long grass to exact their vengeance come the next election.
Then there is the question of Beverley Cooper-Flynn. There was no gloating in here when she lost her case. Apart from the fact that many people like her, there was a sense that had she not been a TD, and especially Padraig Flynn's daughter, she would not have been singled out for special treatment. And, as with Michael Lowry, though her offences occurred before she entered politics, it is the profession of politics which is taking the hit. But then, what's new?
On the bigger question of her political future, Drapier has no doubt the people of Mayo will re-elect her and comfortably so. But any talk of a ministerial career, either in the short or the long term, must now be out of the question.
For somebody as able and ambitious as Beverley Cooper-Flynn that is a daunting and depressing prospect. Bev never saw herself as a natural backbencher and expected to spend as little time there as possible. Now she faces the prospect of a backbench life sentence and there are some who wonder if she will bother to stay on, given her obvious ability and energy and given that she is young enough to make a fresh start elsewhere.
But she is a Flynn and she will stay on. Her self-belief and her certainty of the destiny of the Flynns as central players in Irish politics will ensure she does stay on.
It will not, however, be easy or pleasant. As Bertie Ahern said, there is due process that has to be completed and a possible appeal can ensure no immediate decisions of a disciplinary kind need be taken - no matter how much the Opposition insists. Such a situation could drag on for many months, but at best she will be in limbo with little prospect of full reinstatement.
The question most people in here are still asking is why Beverley took the action in the first place. In spite of what some media people say, the courts have not traditionally been particularly kind to politicians and few in here gave her much chance of succeeding. At the end of the day the final decision was hers - was it too much self-belief, bad advice or just bad luck?
Some media commentators saw the whole thing as a great victory for investigative journalism and a breakthrough in the attitude of the courts to the libel and defamation laws. Drapier saw it as nothing such. It was a victory for Charlie Bird over Beverley Cooper-Flynn, one jury's view of a certain case at a certain time. It will take a few more cases before we can talk of any trends emerging.
Indeed Drapier has a feeling the media have gone cool on the whole question of libel law reform. John O'Donoghue is on record more than once in saying his Department will accept some changes long demanded by the National Newspapers of Ireland and other media bodies.
Michael McDowell, when in opposition, authored a Bill which would make for many of these changes and as far as Drapier knows the present Opposition has no trouble with the proposals.
The quid pro quo is a media ombudsman, and Drapier cannot help feeling many in the media prefer the present situation - where they can nurse a sense of grievance without having to do anything about it - and avoid the creation of a watchdog body that might prove irksome.
Meanwhile, the foot-and-mouth situation remains dismal. Had it not happened we would now be down this weekend in Tipperary South at the end of the by-election campaign - a campaign that would have been Michael Noonan's first electoral test and one that he was looking forward to. But now, no by-election and all three party conferences bite the dust. Strange times indeed.
The foot-and-mouth crisis is a real test of national solidarity. So far that solidarity has held but Drapier can already see it fraying at the edges. The tourism and catering industries have legitimate grounds for complaints and a case for compensation. So has the sporting industry and it will be in dealing with these that the Government will face the hard tests where the devil really will be in the detail.
Drapier noticed both inside and outside the House a growing anger at the continuing irregularities - crookedness and criminality - in the livestock trade and asks, what have we learned or done since the beef tribunal? The Department of Agriculture may be managing this crisis but its record since the beef tribunal is looking increasingly flawed and negligent. Problems have been parked, blind eyes have been turned and little has happened by way of real reform. Or so it would seem.