In a week of noisy argument and public confusion, two points were proved beyond reasonable doubt. One was the case for State funding of political parties. The other was the need to divide and reform the Department of Agriculture.
It was not their intention, of course, but Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats combined to make Labour's case on political funding. Fine Gael did it with every twist of the latest tale about Esat/Telenor's $50,000 (£33,000) donation and how the party did its shamefaced, bumbling best to give it back.
Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats did it by showing that they, too, recognised the risks attached to corporate donations - especially when the donors had lately been awarded an incredibly valuable State licence and the recipient was Fine Gael.
Indeed, Martin Cullen cleared his throat and spoke of "the moral imperative" on Fine Gael, in spite of its legal advice, to refer the matter to the Moriarty tribunal, which is inquiring into payments to Charles Haughey and Michael Lowry. And Des O'Malley sharpened his pen to ask the Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport to examine all the circumstances surrounding the award, for £15 million, of a mobile telephone licence which turned out to be one of the most lucrative in the history of the State.
It made a multimillionaire and capitalist hero of Denis O'Brien, the leading Irish partner in the Esat Digifone consortium and earned millions for several members of his team. And because of the secrecy surrounding the award and the speed of its announcement, it's still a subject of controversy in business and politics.
Whether it will now be re-examined by the Oireachtas committee, which is chaired by Sean Doherty and until lately had Liam Lawlor as one of its members, is not clear. The committee met privately this week (though some members thought the session should have been public) and agreed to hear what Moriarty and the parliamentary legal adviser have to say before deciding how to proceed.
In the meantime, there's nothing to stop the debate on funding, though I suspect that many politicians and commentators who criticised Fine Gael this week are about to retreat behind old slogans and crumbling claims.
To ban corporate funding, they'll say, would be unconstitutional. They have legal advice. Well, if they have, let's hear it. You may not remember Michael McDowell's contemptuous opinion when the present legislation was going through the Dail. He thought it was so flawed that it didn't even merit amendment. In any event, the courts would throw it out.
Sound man, Michael. This is the Act which, almost seven years later, Noel Dempsey is trying to amend. So, in spite of McDowell's contempt, it wasn't thrown out by the courts. Happily, we have yet to proclaim the infallibility of legal opinion. If the idea of State funding needs to be tested, let it be put to the Supreme Court - or the people. But the people won't have it, they'll say. The people don't want to pay for the political system.
But they pay for it already: some £42 million a year for the Oireachtas. That includes party leaders' allowances and other assistance to parties. State funding would probably add no more than £5 million to the bill.
And what about new parties, the Progressive Democrats will ask. How could they get going?
There are criteria for the registration of parties. It applies to all of those who are represented in Leinster House and to some who are not. People who want to set up parties are not going to be deterred by the absence of corporate donations.
On the other hand, the existence and influence of corporate donors has a profound effect on public life. It raises public suspicion of all politicians and all businesses and it costs a fortune in legal fees.
One of the most extraordinary passages in the beef tribunal report is Mr Justice Hamilton's glib dismissal of the contributions made by the processing industry to political parties as normal.
So, in spite of the evidence of carousels and cowboys, of fraud and tax evasion, of meat stolen from the European Community and rotting hearts exported to Russia, the only serious action taken when all was said and done was the imposition of a £100 million penalty on this State.
Not on the processors, but on the taxpayers. On the people who, it's now argued, are unwilling to spend a few million making the political parties independent of corporate donations.
Listen carefully to the politicians and businessmen who claim there have been improvements since the tribunal reported. And look again at the present accounts of animals delivered, not 40 or 50 in a single lorry but in thousands at dead of night.
Ask yourself if the factories, or the Department inspectors stationed in them, can be unaware of animals' origins and identities concealed or ignored; of meat falsely labelled and VAT scams following the pattern of which Hamilton was told.
Better still, ask Joe Walsh, Noel Davern and your local TDs why, with all the emphasis on dealers, farmers and hauliers, so little is said or done about factories. Are we back in the land of wink and nod?
Giving a separate Department responsibility for food safety - from farm to fork - is the least that might be done to restore consumer confidence in Irish food. Applying the laws of this State to factory owners as well as to small farmers would help to restore confidence in democracy.
Walsh, Davern and the rest must realise where cynicism leads: they, too, must have heard and read of vigilantes' activities in Kerry and the Sinn Fein claim that the gardai are glad of the helping hand.
dwalsh@irish-times.ie