Dáil Sketch/Frank McNally: The hard-hitting ad campaign on waste got off to an early start yesterday when, despite being broadcast on daytime TV, Dáil questions featured shocking scenes of the Taoiseach and the leader of the Opposition agreeing with each other.
After Tuesday's incident between a bin protester and a truck, Enda Kenny asked Mr Ahern if he believed that the right to protest did not extend to preventing collection of refuse from compliant citizens. The Fine Gael leader's message was - in the words of a hit song of the 1970s: "Let them truckers roll, ten-four!"
And it was a message accepted by the Taoiseach, who replied that Mr Kenny was a "good buddy", or words to that effect.
Not only is Leaders' Questions normally marked by all-out confrontation on the issues of the day, it is equally notable for the fact that Pat Rabbitte always raises an issue different from the one chosen by Fine Gael. So when the Labour leader also addressed himself to refuse trucks yesterday, veterans of the CB radio craze were thinking to themselves: "Mercy, saints alive, looks like we got us a convoy!"
In fairness, Mr Rabbitte didn't go down quite the same line as those in front. Being Labour's main driver these days means you have to occupy a middle-of-the-road position. So, urging political intervention to end the stand-off, Mr Rabbitte also conceded that the law must prevail, and called on protesters to lift the blockade.
It was not quite support for the Taoiseach's position. Yet Mr Ahern, who sometimes finishes Question Time looking like a man gripping the windscreen wipers of a fast-moving truck, appeared suitably grateful for Mr Rabbitte's road manners.
Instinctively, he appealed for calm on the issue. But, in truth, if the Dáil had been any calmer we'd have fallen asleep.
Normal business was restored when the Greens, who oppose convoys on environmental grounds, attacked the Government's plans to fast-track the planning process for major infrastructure. Trevor Sargent was particularly incensed by the Taoiseach's attack on "swans" for delaying work on a bridge at Malahide "given that Ray Burke and his Fianna Fáil cronies rezoned the original line for that development".
Clearly inspired by the new ads, he suggested Mr Ahern's problem was "not the swans, but the rats in his own party".
On the positive side, he also complimented the Taoiseach's swan-like neck, and one of his cheeks ("some cheek!").
Whichever cheek he meant, Mr Ahern promptly turned the other one ("I will ignore Deputy Sargent's remarks about my party") and echoed the compliments, suggesting that neck-wise, the Green party leader was a hard act to follow.
Both their necks were outdone by Sinn Féin's Aengus Ó Snodaigh. In a performance worthy of Swan Lake, Mr Ó Snodaigh excoriated the Government for its support of the global arms trade and called for a ban on military exports. Amid ironic laughter, the Taoiseach was almost speechless. He recovered sufficiently to quip that the Government was "all in favour of exporting guns".