Dail Sketch/Frank McNally: As every good barrister learns, you should never ask a question in court to which you don't already know the answer. This is equally true of Leaders' Questions in the Dáil, where requests for information are the traditional overture to displays of moral outrage.
Enda Kenny broke the rule yesterday when he devoted his Leaders' Questions slot to the imminent (or so he thought) closure of a charity headquarters in Dublin. Surely a caring Government could find the money needed to save it, he suggested.
When the Tánaiste rose to reply, with the word "caring" written on her every feature, he must have feared the worst. Sure enough, she announced that the Government had already found the money, and that moves were afoot to ensure Carmichael House remained open. "I share the view expressed by Deputy Kenny of the extraordinarily valuable work the centre does," she added, cruelly.
The worst thing about this situation is that, under Dáil rules, he gets a minute to reply to the reply, whether he wants to or not. Not only has he been publicly deflated, he also has to pretend to be grateful to the Government for its promptness in dealing with the problem he just raised. A minute is rarely enough for any politician to make a point, but for Enda Kenny yesterday, it was 58 seconds longer than required.
This is not a risk Joe Higgins ever runs, especially when the subject of his question is George W Bush. Short of the Tánaiste announcing plans to arrest the President on his arrival in Ireland - wrapping him up in the red carpet and bundling him onto a helicopter bound for The Hague to be tried for war crimes - the Socialist Party leader is unlikely to be wrong-footed. Even if she did reply in those terms, he would use his follow-up minute to demand the return of the bowl of shamrock seized illegally by the White House last March.
Mr Higgins's indignation is never more savage than when discussing the US leader. Yesterday he condemned the "police state" conditions around Shannon in advance of the visit, and the creation of a "mini-gulag" for jailed protesters. But his bitterest scorn was for a suggestion that the President might like to see a hurling match. The big danger, he warned, was that Mr Bush "might declare the hurley a weapon of mass destruction and bring in the air force".
Ms Harney promised to pass on Joe's "regards" when she met the President. Her own regards might be less than effusive, however. Lack of enthusiasm for the visit shone through a reply that placed the event firmly in the context of EU business. "We do not agree with the US approach on many foreign policy issues, and that will be made clear." Mr Higgins was luckier than Mr Kenny in that the Tánaiste stopped well short of announcing that she shared his view. But even here, the gap seems to have narrowed.