A strange thing happened on Today FM this week when Des Geraghty of SIPTU, Shane Ross of the Sunday Independent and Eamon Dunphy of The Last Word found themselves in agreement - with each other.
The issue was not the Fianna Fβil Ardfheis, which opened last night, but the crisis in Aer Lingus, which is one of the most serious - and complex - challenges to have faced the Coalition since it took office in 1997.
But, as an American commentator observed the other day, if a crisis is big enough, ideology no longer counts. And in this case the challenge faces not only the Government but the Opposition, the Aer Lingus management and the unions.
It's serious because some 3,200 jobs and the future of Shannon Airport are at stake; complex because this isn't just an industrial problem. It is, as Des Geraghty said, directly related to events in the United States, which makes it a special case.
Shane Ross agreed but added that this was still "a highly politicised row", with the Government, the unions and the European Commission on different sides. If the unions, usually strong supporters of the EU, became critics, he'd give them a sceptic's welcome.
Some old disagreements would continue: not even Railtrack's disastrous privatisation is likely to change the Coalition's deep ideological antipathy to state ownership; privatisation is a central feature of its industrial strategy.
Since September 11th, questions of European policy and American example must also be taken into account. And if Mary O'Rourke takes the fight on policy to Brussels next week she'll find herself with some unexpected allies.
Can she and the unions persuade the Commission that Ireland's is a special case, which - for a variety of reasons - justifies arrangements to help Aer Lingus out of its crisis? In spite of the EU's policy on competition and aid to airlines?
Will the Commission acknowledge our isolation - the only member-state without a land-link to the rest of the Community? Our heavy reliance on air transport to reach our markets? The case might have been made earlier.
After all, Aer Lingus's troubles had already begun when foot-and-mouth disease severely reduced traffic - and tourism - in the first half of the year.
As for the American example of special treatment - immediately after the New York and Washington attacks, the Bush administration, which stands somewhere to the right of the FF-PD coalition and far from the European Union's social economy, coughed up £20 billion to tide US airlines over their crisis.
Mary O'Rourke, of course, will have some handicaps when she argues Ireland's case. She won't have been helped by Charlie McCreevy's tomfoolery budgetary strategy or the collective failure to put up a decent performance in the Nice referendum.
And if she fails, with the loss of 3,200 jobs, SIPTU and the other Aer Lingus unions will find it difficult, if not impossible, to call for a Yes vote next time round.
In the Aer Lingus debate so far she has her critics, as we heard in the Dβil and on numerous radio and telelvision programmes this week. For instance, there's the estimate of losses running to £2 million a day. And, as she said on Wednesday: "This can't go on." But is it true?
Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party suspects a plot aimed at privatisation, with the Minister, the management and the EU Commission as conspirators.
Nora Owen found it hard to credit that Aer Lingus's finances had fallen from a fairly satisfactory state to terminal decline since September 11th.
Noel Dowling of SIPTU said the £2 million estimate was a result of some accountancy exercise. It couldn't be otherwise, he argued, since it was largely a forecast.
For the past week, television audiences have been treated to lectures on military affairs in and around Afghanistan by men who poke the Himalayas on their relief maps and talk with bland certainty about what's going on.
These Dr Strangeloves of the networks speak a language that only nine-year-olds understand, from which all trace of humanity has been eliminated.
The Dr Strangeloves of the economy have been poking about State enterprises generally and Aer Lingus in particular since the mid-1990s. Ryanair and its barking chief executive are their exemplars.
Even when Railtrack crashes or a privatised water company dries up, they waffle on about competition, cost-cutting and privatisation.
No one blinks when George Bush hands out billions to airlines.
Industrial policy hasn't been discussed for years. And I doubt if you'll hear much of it this weekend - unless someone wants to follow their Eircom triumph by selling the ESB, CI╔, Coillte, Aer Rianta and Bord Gβis ╔ireann.
As for Bertie Ahern: he'll raise the rafters with news of an abortion referendum that no one needs before setting off tomorrow to re-bury the dead. I wonder if he knows I'm Walking Backwards for Christmas.
dwalsh@irish-times.ie