Dáil Sketch/Michael O'Regan: There was a leak in the Dáil yesterday, and it came close to having dramatic consequences for the Labour Party and its leader, Pat Rabbitte.
It forced Mr Rabbitte to move dramatically to the right, and he was perilously close to having a number of wets on his front bench. In the end, he decided it was all water under the bridge, although he remained perched decisively on the right for some time to avoid another damaging leak.
As the rain fell on Leinster House at lunchtime, the roof of the Dáil chamber sprang a leak. When deputies gathered at 2.30 p.m. for Taoiseach's Question Time, a bucket had been placed on the Labour benches to take the water. Had Mr Rabbitte remained in his usual position, he would have been addressing the Taoiseach and president of Europe from behind the bucket.
"No leaks on this side of the House," observed a Fianna Fáil voice. "Any drips?" asked a journalist.
Mr Ahern was given a reasonably easy ride at Question Time, but the storm began at leaders' questions when he was challenged on the electronic voting controversy. By then the leak had stopped, the bucket had been removed, and Mr Rabbitte had returned to his usual position on the left of the Labour benches.
The Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, whose resignation was demanded by the opposition, sat between the Taoiseach and the Minister for Defence, Michael Smith.
Asked repeatedly if Mr Cullen would resign or be sacked, Mr Ahern snapped: "No, no, no!" Mr Rabbitte replied: "Shame, shame, shame!"
The Taoiseach insisted that no money had been wasted, and the machines would be used in future elections. An exasperated Mr Rabbitte said the Taoiseach sometimes convinced him that if he had been around at the time of the Wall Street Crash, he would have come into the House to say it was good for the economy.
As the day wore on, the president of Europe came under intense pressure from the opposition parties on the mess they alleged his Government was making on domestic issues, including the health services. Mr Ahern and his colleagues were busy upstairs at the parliamentary party meeting expelling Beverley Flynn.
Meanwhile, the leak did not return. "It's gone until it rains again," a journalist observed. As the president of Europe understands, it never rains but it pours when Fianna Fáil is in trouble.