So Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats have achieved the height of their collective ambition: they'll skulk in office a while longer, beyond the reach of parliamentary scrutiny.
How soon the Dail resumes is likely to depend on how long it takes to improve the accommodation in Leinster House and repair damage done by time and weather.
It will take a lot longer to repair the damage to trust in public life and parliamentary politics done by the most indifferent, incoherent government since Haughey's GUBU months in 1982. The reality, said Ruairi Quinn, is that Bertie Ahern's sole interest is hanging onto power. Power for power's sake, not to achieve political goals or map out new directions.
Power was the holy grail of Ahern's former master, Haughey: "Power lets you look after your own. Misplaced political patronage, like the rescuing of [Hugh] O'Flaherty because deep down you never really believed that he had done anything wrong."
John Bruton, too, had his sights on the scorch marks of Haughey's legacy: it was grotesque to have as Taoiseach someone who had signed thousands of cheques for Haughey.
It was unprecedented that Ahern had sent McCreevy, as Finance Minister, to answer for the Taoiseach; bizarre that he'd appointed Ray Burke to his Cabinet and simply unbelievable that Mary Harney had said what she'd said about Haughey.
[As I write, the Director of Public Prosecutions has been given leave to seek a judicial review of the indefinite postponement of Haughey's trial for obstruction of the McCracken tribunal.]
The Ministers who contributed to the business of the week - as distinct from the business of the Dail - did not stray far from sleaze or who, in their opinion, was to blame for its consequences.
Jim McDaid blamed the media. Brian Cowen blamed RTE. Michael Smyth blamed the Moriarty tribunal. John O'Donoghue blamed the Opposition. Mary O'Rourke blamed misunderstandings. Ahern couldn't remember who to blame and added to the confusion.
Most Ministers seemed to think the country is populated by recent arrivals, strangers who have trouble with the language and short memories. None of them seems to realise that what was wrong with the Government's handling of Hugh O'Flaherty's nomination to the European Investment Bank was not a popular misunderstanding; people understood all too well.
It was an issue that was easily understood. It couldn't be consigned to the past and attributed to another administration. And it appeared to fit in a nutshell the accusations levelled against the Government of cronyism, operating two-tier systems, arrogance and brazen refusal to account for its actions. It was a message sent by an opinion poll but not credited, and driven home by the electorate of Tipperary South in what amounted to a historic by-election.
When Fianna Fail staggered to its feet again in mid-week, party strategists sent out some of its Ministers to explain that all was not lost and to contradict reports from the Moriarty tribunal.
It was a case of the old headline returning to haunt the party: "Sewer crisis worsens - Ministers step in."
Jim McDaid agreed with Eamon Dunphy on The Last Word that Tipperary had sent a message to the Government. What he wanted to know was "who's telling the people?"
He was in the middle of a complaint about unnamed editors, out to get the Government, when he hit on a surprising comparison. A similar situation, he said, existed in Germany in the 1930s.
There, "truth and democracy succumbed and people were forced by certain factions into something that was totally untrue."
This novel version of the origins of the Third Reich - and the bizarre relevance to Ireland now - was echoed in the Dail in John O'Donoghue's call to John Bruton.
O'Donoghue said Bruton should "give over the fascism" - apparently by refraining from any further references to sleaze based - in the Minister's opinion - on rumour, misrepresentation, innuendo and smear.
There is a sense in which comparison with Germany is valid. Even as McDaid spoke, the former chancellor Helmut Kohl was preparing to appear before a parliamentary committee.
He is accused of secretly accepting donations from business interests at home and abroad. On Thursday he complained of an unprecedented attempt "to defame me through inaccurate reports, insinuations and twisting of the facts".
Now, that does sound familiar. I wonder if he's complained to the courts that this is ruining his reputation?
Brian Cowen was let out on Thursday to trample all over RTE on Morning Ireland. He complained about the Moriarty tribunal and a suggestion that Fianna Fail had supplied incomplete information.
Next day it became clear that this was indeed the case. Without the key - an abstract which was not supplied - the party's list of contributors could not be fully understood.
He boasted that the Dail would be meeting in committee during the recess - and failed to admit that Fianna Fail had just flown in the face of the system by imposing a whip to avoid an embarrassing invitation to O'Flaherty to attend committee hearings.
Any objective assessment, he claimed, as he and others did yesterday, would confirm the success of this Government. But will it?
Cowen's interview was followed within a minute or so by a quiet voice reading an advertisement: "Child poverty in Ireland is one of the worst in the EU. It affects children in all sorts of ways . . . Poverty hits hard at kids. Let's end child poverty. We can well afford it."
It's part of the Open Your Eyes to Child Poverty initiative, organised by the Combat Poverty Agency, Barnardo's, Children's Rights Alliance, the National Youth Council of Ireland and St Vincent de Paul. But hard chaws like Cowen probably don't listen to stuff like this.