Parties prepare as Dail curtain finally falls

After the waiting, the baiting and the predictions, the curtain finally closed on the 28th Dail just after 9 a.m. today.

The Taoiseach visited Áras an Uachtaráin many months later than predicted and asked President Mrs Mary McAleese to dissolve the Dáil. The General Election will be held on Friday, May 17th.

The coalition has survived Floods and pools, a squall around the constituency of Liam Lawlor and choppy seas around the Hugh O’Flaherty nomination to the European Investment Bank.

Today the Taoiseach will reveal the Fianna Fáil election manifesto. Conservative tax and spending policies will be joined with a special focus on crime and education.

The Progressive Democrats (PDs), their coalition partners, announced their election manifesto last week. The PDs are seeking to sell off a number of State-owned companies to provide investment for social services, but this idea has found little favour with their former partners.

Today the Tániaste, Mrs Harney, began the PDs' electioneering with a meet-and-greet walk along Baggot Street.

Fine Gael will finally be able to put their new leadership model to the most rigorous of tests. Party leader Mr Michael Noonan will begin his party’s campaign this afternoon. Tomorrow sees the publication of their election manifesto.

This afternoon the Labour Party will unveil the first stage of their manifesto with a document outlining economic policies.

It will be busy outside Dáil Éireann today as the Green Party and a group of anti-incineration independent candidates announce their election manifestos. The Greens enter this election with a party leader for the first time.

The Socialist Party are expected to announce their election manifesto tomorrow.