This ought to have been a week in which the promises and problems of the next three or four years in politics began to take shape. We have a Government; the full outline of the Opposition will soon be visible, writes Dick Walsh
We should have a clear idea of the social, economic, Northern and European issues likely to occupy the Dáil and the Government by the time Labour finds a direction and leader at the end of next month.
But this week has been far from a brisk start to a busy new season.
Indeed, it fits all too neatly into a year of political confusion during which the only thing to compare with the mound of questions raised by its critics at the Government's door was the Government's determination to ignore them.
Why, for instance, did Fianna Fáil, senior partners in the old coalition, go out of their way to deny that they stood a chance of winning an overall majority in the new Dáil?
And why did Fianna Fáil's once and future partners - or guardians in government - the Progressive Democrats, continue to claim that an overall majority for FF would be the worst of all outcomes for the electorate?
Even when poll after poll, some in the regular series commissioned by newspapers and broadcasters, others of doubtful provenance and questionable quality, a few plainly fictional, showed Fianna Fáil well ahead?
An overall majority was clearly in the party's sights.
Indeed, FF might well have formed a government with a little help from its friends, two or three nominally Independent backbenchers who had helped prop up the previous government and would be perfectly happy to do the same again.
As it happened the help wasn't needed: no sooner had the results been studied than it was obvious the Progressive Democrats were ready, willing and able to serve unreconstructed Fianna Fáil.
More to the point, the member of the PDs who had most vociferously denounced FF, Michael McDowell, was ready to move, lock, stock and barrel, from the Attorney General's office into the Department of Justice.
Never mind the contradictions: Niccolo Machiavelli, who matched the Medicis in Florence, survived in style the murkier waters of Dublin South East.
But the most confusing week of a confusing year neither began nor ended with the reconciliation of FF and the PDs, a political odd couple if ever there was one; the Coalition reached an extraordinary agreement as to how some other potentially disastrous affairs might be handled.
They decided to reopen the Dáil early so that TDs could get down to business without delay.
A final gesture, you might have thought, in view of public criticism of the Dáil's predilection for taking off at the slightest excuse, leaving unanswered - and unasked - questions in every corner.
An early resumption would be especially valuable on this occasion as so many TDs were newcomers from the Green Party, Sinn Féin or the biggest assortment of Independents to have been elected for a long time.
They could do with the help of old hands who'd show them the ropes.
Worries about the State's finances, taxation and public services, which were evident but not debated during the campaign, had intensified with the resumption of the FF-PD partnership during the campaign.
The confusion had grown because Bertie Ahern and Charlie McCreevy stubbornly refused to explain or even discuss the crises their policies provoked. Ahern oozed reassurance. McCreevy cackled on about miracles.
And when the campaign was over and the new Coalition - well, the old coalition with a lick of paint and a new retainer or two - returned to office, there were some other curiosities which might have been explained.
There were cutbacks where none had been expected, promised or threatened. Ahern snapped at journalists' use of the word "cutbacks" and, when it came to complaints about reductions in overseas development aid, he and his colleagues argued about definitions and targets.
The Dáil had resumed early to pass legislation allowing us to have a second referendum on the Treaty of Nice.
Its rejection in the first referendum had been deeply embarrassing all round.
Enda Kenny and Ruairí Quinn continued to call for a Yes vote, not in support of the Government but in spite of it. It's a reasonable approach, not only to Nice but to the European project as a whole.
A point made, I believe, whenever we are reminded of the risk of finding ourselves at the mercy of George W. Bush and his gaggle of corporatist crooks and fundamentalists. Here, unfortunately, FF's broken election promises and a clumsy start to the Coalition's campaign have become a focus of resistance.
Even some of the Government's old friends are turning against it, which causes Ahern and colleagues to react in uncharacteristic style.
This was clear from a discussion on Tuesday's edition of Liveline, the RTÉ radio program presented by Joe Duffy.
It featured Michéal Martin and the Sunday World's crime correspondent, Paul Williams, who had last week attacked Ahern.
Williams was angered by the state of the health services. He listed examples as well as the causes and consequences of failure. Some had doubted, in the aftermath of the election, that such feeling were abroad: now, here, on Radio One, Williams's anger blazed and a majority of listeners appeared to agree with him. And when someone said that his might have been an opposition view he made a more telling point: he said he'd voted for Fianna Fáil. Several listeners said they had also.
It was the kind of thing that party leaders hate to hear; especially if, like Ahern, they'd been at that moment advocating sustainable development in far off Johannesburg: "It matters for many many millions who are poor and starving," he said.
"It matters for our children and future generations. Let us not fail in this historic task."
His Government had just cut €40 million from its budget for overseas development aid. But that's the kind of year it is.