The ambitions of local Fine Gael councillors are likely to thwart any hopes the party might have of running GAA president Seán Kelly in Kerry South at the next general election.
Labour will be up against it to retain its seat, following the announcement by local TD Breeda Moynihan-Cronin to retire on health grounds at the next election, and the way is open to Fine Gael to win back a seat it lost in 1989.
Mr Kelly, from Kilcummin, near Killarney, would be a high-profile candidate with a local and national appeal. He is a first cousin of Fionnuala Kelly, wife of Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, and was an unsuccessful local elections candidate for the party in 1991.
However, all aspiring local candidates have made it clear that Mr Kelly would have to take his chances at a selection convention like everybody else.
Given the entrenched local power blocks, he would be unlikely to succeed.
Mr Kelly, who will finish a highly successful presidential term at the GAA's congress in Killarney next Easter, has refused to be drawn on the matter.
He has, however, indicated that he will not be returning to his teaching post at St Brendan's College, Killarney, at the end of his term, fuelling speculation that he might opt for a political career.
"My name has been mentioned, but not by me," he told The Irish Times yesterday. "I made it very clear when I became president that I was apolitical and I was not going to be involved in speculation about myself and any political involvement."
There was a time when Fine Gael had more than a quota in Kerry South, but party infighting and the consolidation of the Labour seat by the Moynihan dynasty, represented by Ms Moynihan-Cronin and her late father, Michael, has meant the constituency is a party blackspot.
The other two seats are held by Minister for Arts, Tourism and Sport John O'Donoghue, and Independent Jackie Healy-Rae.
In the 2002 election, the combined Fine Gael vote was 17.96 per cent as against Labour's 14.48 per cent. However, she was ahead of the Fine Gael candidates on the first count, receiving more than two-thirds of the Fine Gael transfer when they were eliminated.
Next time, Labour transfers may elect a Fine Gael TD, as the two parties put on a united front nationally. Fine Gael, meanwhile, will have to decide on whether to run one or two candidates in the sprawling constituency.
The front-runners are county councillors Séamus Cosai Fitzgerald from Dingle, Tom Sheahan from Rathmore and Johnny O'Connor, from Killorglin.
Killarney-based senator Paul Coghlan has ruled himself out.
Given the dominance of the Moynihan dynasty since the 1950s, Labour has no obvious candidate. Speculation centres on the party's only councillor in the constituency, Seán O'Grady, a member of Killarney Town Council.
Also in the running is Ms Moynihan-Cronin's parliamentary assistant, Owen O'Shea, from Milltown, who is based in Killarney.
Mr O'Shea, who previously worked with the party's press office in Leinster House, was an unsuccessful local elections candidate in an electoral area dominated by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. He is seen as a bright long-term electoral prospect by the party.
There is also speculation that former Labour councillor Michael Gleeson, now an Independent, might be in the reckoning if the rift with the party is mended.
