A quick Cabinet reshuffle avoids a vacuum and a battle.
In every Government there are the "big beasts". They are the ministers with the most experience, the most authority.
They provide stability, certainty and inspire confidence in those with whom they serve.
Cabinet colleagues regarded Paschal Donohoe as one such minister and so his decision this week to resign left a potential vacuum at the heart of the Government.
With him goes years of experience of handling the country's finances, from downturn to boom time and through several global crises.
Watch: 'I'm departing public life in Ireland' - Donohoe
Mr Donohoe delivered ten budgets as minister finance or public expenditure.
He managed the economy through the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the cost-of-living crisis that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
For some years, however, he had demonstrated that his ambitions extended beyond these shores.
Since 2020, he headed up the Eurogroup of countries that use the euro.
The Eurogroup chair is tasked with making sure Eurozone nations coordinate national financial policies.
Last year, Mr Donohoe was also in contention to become the head of the International Monetary Fund.
Cabinet sources said the first that ministers heard about him resigning was in the pre-Cabinet meeting that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil ministers hold separately with their party leaders. That was on Tuesday morning.
The news came as a surprise but not a shock.
The fact that it had not been leaked in advance was remarked on by some ministers afterwards.
Of course, "senior management" in both parties, i.e. Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris, had known for over a week that the World Bank job was on offer.
However, it was only on Monday night the board of the bank signed off on the appointment.
Losing the finance minister, and losing all that knowledge, had the potential to destabilise the Coalition - something ministers were well aware of.
"Losing Paschal potentially takes from Government stability," one Cabinet source said.
They added: "He was there so long, was respected in the three wings of the Coalition and when he spoke, he had a levelling voice on issues."
Another source referred to him as "'Captain Sensible', he had seen it all and his experience of handling crises gave him gravitas".
The upheaval was also remarked on in the Dáil by Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik on Tuesday.
"Insecurity and instability lies at the heart of the financial engine of the State and at the heart of Government in general and that matters because a Government that lacks stability cannot offer hope," she said.
Of course, Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris was forewarned, and so the Fine Gael reshuffle of ministers was ready to be announced.
Fine Gael sources said there were two compelling reasons to deal with the matter quickly.
The first, the aforementioned potential for instability with no ministerial hand on the tiller steering the Department of Finance.
The second was to short circuit any outbreak of jockeying for promotion within that party, full of young and ambitious TDs.
"We wanted to get it done quickly. You can’t have a vacancy for long in Fine Gael once the minister is gone. It was important to get it done, not to allow it to fester," a source said.
Watch: Taoiseach announces cabinet reshuffle following Donohoe resignation
So, it was less than two hours after Mr Donohoe informed the media in Government Buildings that he had resigned as minister that the Taoiseach was in the Dáil announcing the reshuffled ministers.
He appointed Tánaiste Simon Harris to the Department of Finance, Helen McEntee to Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Defence, and Hildegarde Naughton to the Department of Education and Youth.
On his feet in the Dáil a short time later, the Tánaiste’s message was essentially one of 'steady as she goes’.
"There can be a moment of intrigue, there certainly can be a moment of shock, but it will not be a moment of interruption," he said.
"There will be no pause in the momentum we must demonstrate in the business of Government," Mr Harris added.
Of course, the Opposition view any continuity of Mr Donohoe’s economic management of the country as a very bad thing.
That is a sentiment that will feature heavily in the upcoming by-election in Dublin Central for his vacated Dáil seat.
To Sinn Féin, continuity and stability from Government means continuing with an approach that has left citizens to struggle.
"That is not stability, it is a Government failing to meet the basic needs of our citizens," said Mairéad Farrell, the party's Spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Infrastructure and chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee.
"People are sick of hearing the Government talking about rainy day funds when the rain is pouring down on them right here, right now.
"There has been no interruption in their approach either - because from day one their approach has been one of consolidating privilege and consolidating power," Ms Farrell said.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns expressed similar sentiments in the Dáil in recent days.
"People will see change in Cabinet, but will they see change in their lives? Will a new finance minister take a different approach?" she asked.
The Opposition’s consensus is that it will not.
Mr Donohoe’s final speech in Dáil Éireann came on Thursday afternoon.
It was, Mr Harris pointed out, 5,364 days since his maiden speech back in 2011 as a TD for Dublin Central.
The subject the now former minister Donohoe chose to speak about was not about threats to the economy, world financial woes or sustaining centrist politics (a big theme to which he often returns).
It was about libraries.
Responding, the new Minister for Finance Simon Harris provoked some laughter when he joked, he "never thought he would see the day that Paschal Donohoe would ask me to spend more money".
It was a humorous and ironic end to the domestic political career of ‘Prudent Paschal’, who spent so much time damping down his colleagues’ budgetary spending ambitions over the years while public spending was only going up.
