A week may well be a long time in politics but just five days after he rocked the Government by abstaining in a vote of confidence in Health Minister Mary Harney, Cork East TD Ned O'Keeffe finally walked among his people again and wondered what all the fuss was about.
After a weekend of lying low, so low in fact, it was rumoured, that Ned actually failed to attend a constituent's funeral, he sauntered back into public eye to attend a prizegiving ceremony at St Fanahan's College in his home town.
But far from any Beverley-like return with bonfires blazing, Ned's return to Mitchelstown was a low-key affair. He was welcomed by school principal Colman Murphy and then almost anonymously slipped into the auditorium.
Any mention of Ned's refusal to back Mary Harney was quickly knocked on the head by the former minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, who showed himself a dab hand at eluding the media following his self-imposed entry into the supposed political wilderness.
"No, no, I have nothing to say on that. I said all I had to say on that last Wednesday night at 9pm, didn't you hear me? The book is closed, the book is closed," he rattled in a machinegun delivery that suggested a certain finality before breaking into his trademark roguish grin.
With his glasses perched on his nose giving him a look of owlish sagacity, Ned was industriously jotting down notes during the various presentations including one sponsored by his son, Cllr Kevin O'Keeffe, for, ahem, continuous attendance.
And when he came to the podium at the end of the awards, he showed that he had lost none of his loyalty to his party when, after praising the students and staff and the award sponsors, he paid tribute to Micheál Martin before turning to Brian Cowen and today's Budget.
"A lot of people are afraid of the Budget but I'm very confident that we will have a good Budget and we will look after the people and the economy and especially the people who are in need in our society," said Ned, predicting major infrastructural investment.
"I don't want to keep the meeting because being a backbench TD, you don't have all the influence you like," he declared to a few hearty chuckles before departing into the night and a party meeting in Fermoy. The work of a Fianna Fáil TD, even one minus the whip, it seems, is never done.
