Good morning.
So the final week of the campaign is upon us. Five final frantic days of campaign before polling day on Saturday begin this morning.
If you think the politicians – and the unfortunates who observe and relate their daily words and deeds – are a bit frazzled now, wait until you see the state of us on Friday night.
But for now, to arms. Weekend opinion polls which showed the party in third place put the fear of God into Fine Gael, with some predictions that the party could be facing a 2002-style meltdown.
There will be more on the opinion poll front before long, but for now the party is trying desperately to maintain its discipline in the constituencies, telling itself and anyone who cares to listen that a late turnaround is already underway and that concerns about the economy and Brexit will bring swing voters back to the party this week.
If that is true, there is no visible sign of it yet.
Despite the big story in this election so far being the remarkable growth in support for Sinn Féin, Fine Gael plans to turn its guns on Fianna Fáil this week, and also on the Green Party, hoping to scare "defectors" back to the party.
The Fine Gael campaign has been extremely negative so far. There is little sign that it is working. But the party is sticking with the strategy, as Leo Varadkar’s warning about the “backwoodsmen” of Fianna Fáil demonstrates.
It's our lead story this morning and coverage will continue throughout the day.
Elsewhere, Marie O'Halloran examines if scare tactics really work and she is also on the canvass trail with Aontú candidate Sarah O'Reilly in Co Monaghan, the party's best hope of a second seat.
Fianna Fáil TD John McGuinness gives his leader another headache by breaking the party line on talking to Sinn Féin In the first of a series of interviews with the party leaders, Brendan Howlin says he will seek to build a progressive alliance with the Greens and Social Democrats before coalition talks with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
This week will be the most intense and hard-fought so far. The most important event will be the televised debate between the two candidates for Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin, on RTÉ on Tuesday evening.
But Sinn Féin is pushing hard for Mary Lou McDonald's inclusion in the debate and the party may yet get its way. It's a tough call for RTÉ, which either rewrites its own rules, or excludes the leader of one of the most popular parties.
In an example of how the ball has bounced for Sinn Féin in this campaign, Mary Lou probably wins either way.
The central question of this week – the answer will decide the ultimate outcome of this general election, is what happens to that new Sinn Féin support?
Does it continue to grow? Or does it fall away, as has happened to the party in previous elections? New middle class Sinn Féin voters may be scared by warnings about the economy – but they will also be emboldened to stick with their preference as they see lots of people like them doing the same thing.
If that happens, the political landscape will be reordered by this election. Five days to go. Hang on to your hats.
Best reads
Kevin O'Sullivan on whatever happened to the "climate election".The former Fianna Fail minister Conor Lenihan says the public have yet to really engage with the campaigns.
Una Mullally wonders if Sinn Féin really wants to be in government this time
Sorcha Pollak writes that the high cost of citizenship is a barrier to young people's participation in the election
Inside Politics Election Special Podcast
Don't forget to tune in to our daily podcasts for an up to the minute take from the campaign trail.
Election diary
The Social Democrats are launching their climate policy – greener and fairer – at Mountjoy Square in Dublin Central at 10.30am, with Gary Gannon, one of the party's few hopes for a seat gain.
Labour launches its housing policy at 2pm.
The Taoiseach is in Limerick and Tipperary, while Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath will hold a press conference at 11am to "discuss the last week of the general election campaign and the choice facing voters". A wide ranging topic indeed.
Sinn Féin has not yet released details of its plans for the day.
As ever, you'll find coverage of all this and much more on Harry McGee's daily live blog on irishtimes.com.
You can also tune into our daily election podcasts at irishtimes.com/insidepolitics. We're hosting a special live event for subscribers on Wednesday evening in Trinity College where Fintan O'Toole (for 'tis he), Mary Minihan, Jennifers O'Connell and Bray, Hugh Linehan and yours truly will discuss the last week of the general election campaign and the choice facing voters. Or something like that.
