DÁIL SKETCH: THE RANKS were somewhat depleted for yesterday's Dáil Order of Business.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny and Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue, usually major players on Taoiseach-free Thursdays, were absent.

Paranoia, an ever-present human emotion in these dark and tense days, gripped Leinster House. Did they know something the rest of this did not know? Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan took the Order of Business, so the absences could not mean that they had run for cover because the IMF was at the gates of Leinster House. Relief all round.

Lenihan appeared relaxed and in control as he faced a grilling from Fine Gael's Richard Bruton on the procedures for drafting the promised April budget.

Bruton thanked the Minister for the Department of Finance briefing and went on to ask about the "ground rules" for the economic debate between now and budget day. He asked if they would see a new approach to Dáil evaluation, whereby the House would be presented with Department of Finance options, and their impact, so that there could be a "mature debate".

"Will we have the same situation we have seen in the past, where the Government produces a pre-cooked . . . offer to the Dáil on a take-it-or-leave-it basis on one day, which will be April 1st?"

Intimations of an April Fools Day hairshirt enveloped Government backbenchers.

Bruton said that there was no point in putting forward proposals if the Government used them as sticks to beat the Opposition. "Hear, hear," said his colleagues.

"If there is to be engagement, it must be from both sides," Bruton continued.

He called for a genuine exchange on the best economic options. "If they have any," snorted his colleague Dinny McGinley.

The body language on the Government benches was defensive.

Replying in precise tones, Lenihan said that the Government was willing to supply the Opposition parties with any information they wanted to inform themselves about the options they believed were desirable.

"Recommendations for decisions in this area must be made with the approval of Government," he said. "The Government has told Opposition parties that if they wish to participate in this process they are welcome to do so."

Unimpressed, Bruton said he wanted clarification about the Dáil's engagement in the process. He wondered if the Government would come into the Dáil on April 1st and tell the Opposition that they could like it or lump it.

"They do not have a clue what they are doing," said an increasingly sceptical McGinley.

Lenihan spoke of making decisions in the national interest.

It was clear, however, that the prospect of any consensus on the April hairshirt seemed very remote. And so it petered out, with the rest of the Order of Business low-key and routine.

Perhaps all political passion was spent, just like the money.