Estimates Sketch/Frank McNally:Ireland may be richer than ever before, but there was a nagging sense in Government Buildings yesterday of what we've lost along the way.
The old Brian Cowen, for one thing. There was a man there who looked like Brian Cowen. He even answered to that name. But anyone who remembered when he was the star turn at Fianna Fáil conferences knew it wasn't really him.
This one kept saying things like "prudent" and "multi-annual funding envelope" in deliberately colourless tones.
We felt like collaring some of the Department of Finance officials present and demanding to know: "Who is that, and what have you done with the real Biffo?" The current Minister for Finance is like the star of that 1970s series who was in an accident and was rebuilt, bionically (losing some his personality in the operation). They had the technology.
Now, here was the new Brian Cowen: the Fifty Billion Euro Man. That's what he'll have, give or take, to spend in next month's Budget.
His superpowers are expected to include the ability to bridge the gulf between where we are now and some kind of a childcare policy.
But for all his billions, the Minister was giving little away yesterday.
"Without being coy," he began in answer to a question on the childcare plan, before continuing coyly that there was "no magic wand" here, that it was a long-term "structural issue", and that "our consideration continues".
Insofar as we glimpsed the shape of things to come, it was when he said that Budget Day would see "the first steps" of the childcare package. As parents will know, this means the package will be a fully-fledged toddler, maybe even potty-trained, in time for the general election.
It's a strange event, the publication of the Estimates. It's like Santa Claus giving a press conference three weeks before Christmas to outline the budgetary framework within which he will operate, but without giving details about the presents, or anything else that would cause excitement.
His elves - senior civil servants - mingle with the reporters crammed into the press room, and their job is to curb any enthusiasm that breaks out in spite of the Minister's efforts.
If a journalist finds an apparently interesting figure in the subhead for the OPW, the relevant official will be quick to assure him that, actually, there's nothing interesting about that; it's only a technical adjustment.
The Department of Finance has to be cautious, obviously. A careless word or gesture from the Minister could start a run on the banks.
On a day when Willie "The Kid" O'Dea was in trouble for pointing a gun out of a newspaper, and when the Minister for Justice assured already nervous citizens that they would be getting "bang for [their] buck" from increased Garda funding, you could see their point.
Still, a reporter had one last try at extracting something quotable, asking if the childcare plan would reflect the principle of equal treatment for parents working inside and outside the home.
Mr Cowen waxed Jesuitical for a while. "Is that a yes?" the reporter asked. "That's an answer," said the Minister.