IT WAS a week of solid achievement. Joe Walsh came back from Brussels with a good deal. It may be a sign of the times that a net loss is hailed by the Minister and by many farm leaders as a "victory", but by comparison to what Commissioner Fischler wanted to do, it was a good day's work. Drapier says well done.
The word around the corridors during the week was that the Germans were close to throwing in the towel, and that a respite of sorts was on the cards. But nobody sees it as more than a respite. The crisis in agriculture will not go away. The pressure on funding from enlargement of the community is there and won't go away either.
The demands of the Germans and the British for major CAP reforms will also be around for quite some time. In other words, there will be little joy for any minister for agriculture in the foreseeable future, so Drapier's advice to Joe Walsh is to enjoy it while it lasts.
Otherwise it was a strangely quiet week, almost anti-climactic. There was little sense of drama surrounding the historic nature of the British-Irish Agreement Bill which passed through both Houses by Thursday night. It may have been because we knew that the treaty setting up the new implementation bodies was already a "done deal" by the time it came into the Houses.
The fact that the agreement had been reached on the six new bodies was an achievement in itself and, given the imminence of the deadline, it was a case of the flaws having to sort themselves out with the passage of time. And certainly there are some flaws in the legislation, though it does contain provision for dealing with them.
It is not the most satisfactory way to make legislation and posed a curious parliamentary dilemma for many of us. It is not every day that a single measure eliminates three or four long-established bodies and creates half-a-dozen new ones, and does so effectively by Government fiat rather than as a result of long parliamentary deliberation.
But Northern Ireland is Northern Ireland, and nobody wanted unduly to delay matters. So given the absence of any opposition to the principle of the Bill and our inability to make any significant changes, the debates were low-key, but not without passion.
Austin Currie made a particularly good speech in the Dail, as well he might, given his presence at virtually every stage in the events of the past 30 years, something which enabled him to place this week's happenings in a realistic historical context, which he did with some style.
There were good contributions, too, in the Upper House. Maurice Hayes, one of the wiser members of either House, made an effective contribution, and Feargal Quinn bounced back from his battering of recent weeks to make one of the better speeches.
One way or the other it was a good week's work. But the overhang of decommissioning cast its shadow. Drapier has his own views, but like most people in here he knows that any worthwhile executive must be inclusive and must include Sinn Fein. And Drapier knows, too, the depth of the problem facing David Trimble on this same issue.
All Drapier can hope is that something in the ether or in the water in Washington next week will help break down this problem. Drapier hopes so, though ominously the views of some of the country's most respected security correspondents are pointing in a different and less palatable direction.
Meanwhile our Ministers have spread their wings to the four corners of the Earth for St Patrick's Day. And as usual the media sniping is in full spate.
There is no point in Drapier saying these trips are hard work, or that they are seen as important by Irish groups abroad, that they are important in helping generate and consolidate investment, that they help create an Irish presence at an important time of the year.
Nor is there any point in Drapier saying that each Minister will attend five or six functions a day, that many of these functions have the intensity of clinics, that they are in effect hard work with little glamour attached. Drapier thinks our politicians have a duty to fly the flag on St Patrick's Day and for the most part they do it well.
As Drapier said already, the atmosphere in here this week was eerily calm. It was in contrast to the jitteriness of earlier weeks, with Cassandras in all parties predicting the imminent demise of the Government and the certainty of an early election.
So why the sudden change in mood, especially since none of the fundamental issues has changed?
Drapier's first explanation is that in Leinster House everything gets exaggerated and nothing more so than mood swings. Some of our colleagues were born jittery and have the capacity to infect all around them with their mood.
When Drapier wants to know what is really happening he consults the barmen. They have seen it all and are good judges of character. The consensus there is that things are steady, at least in the short term.
Drapier has been saying for some time that this Government has moved in a very short time from being fundamentally stable to being fundamentally unstable. The reason is the tribunals and especially the effect of the fall-out on the PDs, and nothing has happened to change that.
The Government conceded to Fine Gael on the Padraig Flynn motion on Tuesday, and that is an issue with potential for considerable fall-out, especially if Judge Flood decides that Mr Flynn is free to speak.
That is only one of many issues, and none of us knows what secrets Dublin Castle may unveil. The Government will do its best to ensure business as normal and to protest that the happenings at the tribunals were of another time.