Drapier: School's out - but not Leinster House. For the first time in years there will be no traditional half-term break for the Houses of the Oireachtas. For many years, they modelled themselves on schools, which by the end of October had chalked up seven to eight weeks' work.
Not so with all of Drapier's colleagues, who have now had only four weeks' work. The Taoiseach and colleagues wisely decided that enough was enough and, despite some internal protests, it was decided to pass up the traditional week off. No harm at all.
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So the story of the week was health and it will indeed be the story for many weeks to come. Increasing chaos in the accident and emergency services, not just in Dublin, but throughout the country, was on every radio station and newspaper.
Of course, there are dark mutterings of orchestrated campaigns, but Drapier is not so sure. Facts speak for themselves, and the numbers are there on trolleys awaiting admission to beds.
Beds are the root of the difficulty, but much as Drapier admires Joe Duffy's ingenuity on Liveline in locating so many available nursing-home beds, it isn't just that simple. The expression "bed-blockers" is distasteful.
There are many reasons why beds in hospitals are slow to be freed. In many cases there is simply no place that patients can go. He or she may require hospice care, better home help care, step-down beds in nursing homes, community care, domestic adaptations which will render a home more comfortable for the outcoming patient . . .
These are but a shortlist of what has to be put together to create a caring and healing environment, which will allow people, mostly elderly, to leave hospital knowing there is a measure of care available to alleviate their discomforts.
The Minister for Health, Ms Harney, is studying all these matters and is dogged and focused in her determination to put together a short-term strategy and a longer-term plan.
A brief reprise of Ms Harney's earlier political battles will show she devotes much time to proper research and fact-gathering before she moves. Two examples come to mind. Many of her colleagues remember the coal ban battle, which she fought to rid Dublin of smog. This was successful, but she did not move until she had all the facts and was sure of her ground. She did not mind at all the battle with the coal merchants because the cause was a good one.
At that time, Ms Harney shared the Department of the Environment with the minister, one Mr Pee Flynn, who referred to her always as "Miss Harney" and never used the more modern term, Ms Harney. Pee gave Mary the softer, greener environment end of his Department, and she pushed through the famous Environmental Protection Agency Act herself.
Clearly he deemed the green issues more suitable for a woman, while he concentrated on the macho issues like developers and planning.
Equally in the last 12 months, the Tánaiste has dealt with the escalating insurance costs. Again, the ground was carefully mapped out, the proper structure and people put in place and the legislation handled in the Dáil and Seanad by herself. Nothing was left to chance, and consumers should soon witness a dramatic downturn in insurance costs.
Health is a more everyday emotive issue, and there is great interest by all colleagues to see how she will tackle it. Health and education remain the dominant issues, not just in the daily exchanges in the Houses of the Oireachtas, but also in the adjournment debates in both.
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A big picture in political circles is, of course, the North. Much of the underlying work is going on quietly in the background, and the mood varies daily in degrees of optimism or pessimism.
Dermot Ahern's answers to Tommie Gorman's questions were carefully choreographed to spike one of the DUP's constant themes that they were being asked to share power with Sinn Féin, while down here there was no such demand or momentum.
The backwash of his interchange made the PDs distinctly uneasy - that was not the main objective of the exercise, but nevertheless it had a salutary effect in that quarter.
The political fallout for Fianna Fáil was helpful in an unexpected way. Following the recent reshuffle there has been some muttering (muted) among Fianna Fáil deputies, but the Sinn Féin issue gave them something else to bellyache about, and the idea of sharing power with Sinn Féin became a vehicle for their disgruntlement, rather than the Taoiseach.
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It is interesting to see how the Labour Party is responding to the rise and rise of Fine Gael.
Enda Kenny is definitely more surefooted in the Dáil. His words and demeanour have changed.
Fine Gael is behaving in a cock-a-hoop way. Having been on the sidelines for such a long time, any upswing in their political fortunes leads to emphasised expressions of exhilaration.
Labour doesn't like this.
Until now Pat Rabbitte was the King of the Dáil in exchanges, but he is losing that title. The balance will come round again. The parliamentary chamber is all the better for having a good Opposition. Frantic plans are under way in all political parties for laying the ground for the next general election.
Fianna Fáil Ministers and Ministers of State are plying backbenchers with love-bomb letters, inviting them to meet them at such a time on such a date. Never mind that many of the said Ministers and Ministers of State could hardly have had time earlier to say hello to the same backbenchers.
Ministerial clinics are actually under way. Drapier understand there is no big rush to avail of this facility, but it is part of a general revamp to do away with the perception that backbenchers did not have access to Ministers.
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Drapier makes no excuse for returning to another PD Minister who continues to make the news. Michael McDowell's travails in Roscommon are filling pages of newsprint. The planning section in Roscommon County Council has already established a reputation for knocking applications from highly placed people.
More to follow on this one!