Dail Sketch/Frank McNally: The Taoiseach was in Japan blazing a trail as international statesman and potential president of the European Commission.
The Tánaiste was in south Tipperary announcing new jobs. So it fell to the Minister for Defence to deputise for the star in the east, and to face the inevitable flak over the man on the trolley.
Yesterday's Irish Times story about the patient who went to the toilet and came back to find his bed missing dominated Leaders' Questions. Opposition speakers bustled around the trolley like doctors in an overheated episode of ER.
Their diagnoses varied, but they all agreed that the Government was beyond medical help.
Mr Smith may have a unique insight into the insecurities of trolley-borne patients these days. In common with the rest of his ministerial colleagues, he must fear that if he goes to the toilet anytime this summer, his chair at the Cabinet table might be gone when he returns. And the Opposition lost no opportunity to play on his fears yesterday.
When the Minister riposted to leaders-question heckling from Michael Ring with the standard: "You're not leader yet," the Mayo Fine Gaeler went for him like a bad sheepdog with a taste for mutton.
"You'll never be leader," he spat, pointing at the seats behind the Minister, "because you're for the backbenches." Before the elections, Mr Smith might have riposted with an f-word.
But the Government is now in listening mode.
So he had no choice but to turn the other cheek - the cheek featuring what Pat Rabbitte called "Fianna Fáil's new social democratic face" - where the party's better ear is located.
While reciting the standard litany of Government health spending, the Minister agreed, sadly, that there were too many patients on trolleys.
He also agreed, tentatively but not sadly, with Enda Kenny's suggestions of "an unprecedented level of abuse" between the Government partners.
"We do not attempt to deny that we have differences of opinion," he said, thereby confirming widely-held suspicions that the parties are now united by the need for mutual criticism.
With the heavyweights departed from the ring, a bantamweight contest during last night's debate on the National Monuments Bill provided late excitement.
During fierce exchanges, Sinn Féin's Aenghus Ó Snodaigh called Martin Cullen a "tiny little bigot", while Mr Cullen invited him to repeat his insults outside the chamber, taunting that the Sinn Féiner was "not man enough".
The debate continued, fortunately for everyone, inside the House.