Fianna Fail should win the Tipperary South byelection. The left-wing vote in the urban areas of the constituency is fragmented between Eileen Ferris of Labour and Seamus Healy of the Workers' and Unemployed Action Group. The Clare TD Tony Killeen has been canvassing on behalf of the FF candidate, Barry O'Brien. Killeen says O'Brien quietly brokered a deal between the good burghers of Clogheen and the Department of Justice which had proposals to augment the village numbers. Clogheen will now take some asylum-seekers, though fewer than the Department wanted. "He's a good diplomat," says Killeen. "This has gone down well in the constituency."
Fianna Fail is not without its problems in Tipp South. O'Brien is close to the Munster MEP Brian Crowley. However, the sitting FF TD in the constituency is friendly with a man closer to his own generation, the other FF Munster MEP, Gerry Collins. It may be the FF machine in Tipp South will not fire on all cylinders to get O'Brien elected.