Galway West (5 seats): Still hanging on a lamp post for well over a week, an upside-down poster of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern close to the regional hospital might suggest that Fianna Fáil is so "trína chéile" or so determined to snatch three seats in Galway West, that it hasn't even noticed its leader is "bun ós cionn".
This is home to the big chieftain's tent at Ballybrit and Galway Race Week is synonymous with success, excess and dispensing largesse. The "sense of elitism" created by the party's corporate entertainment during the last week of July has been the subject of criticism by its own local organisation. Two years ago, it produced a report calling for a more "open and inclusive" approach by headquarters.
The result? A chaotic Fianna Fáil Galway West selection convention and a protracted row over the party's third candidate for the constituency, with headquarters successfully pushing selection of the youthful Bohermore-based Mike Crowe, who had been elected as an Independent to city council in 2004.
Senator Margaret Cox, who stood unsuccessfully in two general elections and lost to the Progressive Democrats' Noel Grealish by a slim 300 votes in 2002, has now resigned from the party.
She is running as an Independent on issues such as delays over the BreastCheck roll-out and the impact of the €3 billion underspend in the Border, Midlands and Western (BMW) region on the constituency.
Fianna Fáil's junior Minister Frank Fahey, who has been eager to spread the word that his seat is in danger, has targeted the outer city bypass as a gallows on which he aims to hang Galway mayor Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party) given that public transport has been the latter's priority.
Fianna Fáil is not the only party beset by problems here. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny had to beg retiring TD Pádraic McCormack to stand again when the capable former mayor and city councillor Brian Walsh decided not to run.
McCormack is joined by the energetic Oranmore county councillor Fidelma Healy-Eames, who has been strong on issues in which she has expertise, like education, and Seán Kyne, who became the party's first county councillor from Moycullen-Oughterard since 1950 in 2004.
Labour has its headaches too. Former Labour mayor Catherine Connolly resigned from her party last year when headquarters made it clear that party president Michael D Higgins would not have a running mate.
The barrister has a considerable profile in the city for her work on local authority issues such as housing lists (running at six to 10 years), public transport and planning; and some traditional Labour Party supporters further west have pledged to swing in behind her.
How this will affect Higgins's vote is unclear, given the respect with which he is held generally and his close affiliation with the arts community. However, both candidates have been far more outspoken on the issue of contaminated water than most public representatives, apart from Crowe and Cox - both of whom initiated early attacks on the Green Party mayor over the debacle.
Those attacks, which had more to do with the election than with the health of constituents, appear to have come as something of a surprise to Ó Brolcháin. He found himself on the back foot, having to defend his record on raising water quality issues.
Sinn Féin's candidate is Anne Marie Carroll. She ran in the west ward in the local elections. The PDs are repeating their 2002 strategy with three candidates - sitting TD Noel Grealish and councillors Donal Lyons in the city and Tom Welby in the county.
Lyons is based in the large suburb of Knocknacarra, still awaiting services promised in the last general election, and Welby is in Connemara, formerly Bobby Molloy territory and now held by poll-topper and Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív.
Local issues
Whether Lyons and Welby will suffer for their "sweeper" status is debatable, but Grealish is regarded as the most vulnerable of the five sitting TDs.Planning, or lack of it, and a general absence of governance which has contributed to contamination of water supplies and outdated or non-existent sewage-treatment systems; traffic congestion, lack of public transport and disagreements over a promised outer city bypass; over-development of housing without services; social issues, including drugs and crime. Health, including lack of neurosurgery for the west and delays in extending the BreastCheck service west. Education, including overcrowded schools, and lack of State support for the ABA approach to teaching children with autism. The ban on driftnetting for wild salmon and perceived lack of support for the indigenous marine sector in Connemara.
