Finally, a politician honest enough to admit that this canvassing lark can be a bit of a chore. "You would need to have your head examined, really," says Tony Gregory as he knocks on doors around Stoneybatter in Dublin Central.
It is 20 years since this most independent of Independents led the way for the Healy-Raes and Foxes of this State by power-brokering the famous "Gregory Deal" with Charles Haughey in 1982.
The people on the doorsteps haven't forgotten even if Gregory doesn't like the unprecedented arrangement to be called a deal. "It was my programme for government," he says, pretending to be put out.
Gregory, in a mauve shirt and green jacket, comes right out with it on the doorsteps. "So I am getting your number one?" he asks, arms folded, a relaxed smile spreading across his face. If the answer is yes the smile grows wider and the candidate says "thanks very much".
If its no, he asks who they are voting for and on a couple of occasions he even succeeds in changing their minds. "I am going to give you my number two," says a brightly made-up woman. "But I want your number one," he says. "Oh, you want to be Taoiseach now, do you?" she teases before saying she has changed her mind and will put him first.
This being the Taoiseach's constituency, a few people tell the TD with no tie that they are giving Ahern their number one. But in the Glimmerman pub, one regular says Fianna Fáil is too full of chancers now.