FF TDs ready for May poll - but not on Friday, says Ahern

Fianna Fáil TDs and Ministers believe the general election will be held before the end of May, despite Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's attempts yesterday to sow confusion about his intentions.

Up to now, the speculation has centred on Thursday, May 17th and Friday, May 18th, though Mr Ahern yesterday publicly voiced his strong opposition to holding the election on a Friday.

"I listened to the argument the last time. And it didn't work. Friday did not work. I was all over the city on the Friday. What people do now is get out of the city on a Friday afternoon.

"You might say that that would help in the country, but the polls in the city were very, very low after 6 o'clock. Now I know it was a very bad day," he told journalists in Dublin.

The selection of a Friday has traditionally been popular with rural deputies because it allows Dublin-based voters registered in their home rural areas to return to cast their ballot.

However, this argument does not stand up on this occasion, said Mr Ahern. "With the clean-up of the register those people are now registered in Dublin. They are registered here.

"Even the students are registered, even though a lot of the students will be gone by the time there is an election. I went with the argument the last time that it would be a great help everywhere. It wasn't.

"It did nothing for the poll. Look at the figures. I went along with that popular argument, and it didn't work," said Mr Ahern, who privately believes the decision to hold the 2002 election on a Friday cost him a Dáil majority.

Meanwhile, Mr Ahern once more insisted that the Dáil would return after the Easter recess, which lasts from Holy Week until April 24th, despite the obvious frustration building among his backbenchers.

"I was always clear that the Dáil would come back after Easter and sit for a number of weeks after Easter. So that is still the position, so there is no change. I made it clear at Christmas but, maybe, everybody wasn't listening, that we would be back after Easter," said Mr Ahern, as he attended a reception to mark the Irish Cancer Society's Daffodil Day.

Privately, some senior deputies are becoming concerned about Mr Ahern's possible decisions on an election date and the electoral strategy being followed. However, much of the dissatisfaction can be put down to increas- ing nerves as polling day edges closer and exhaustion among deputies who have been campaigning for up to a year in many cases.

The election must be held before July 4th.

Questioned about election promises expected this weekend at the Fianna Fáil Ardfheis, Mr Ahern said the party would be "prudent" about everything it did. "We want the strong Irish economy that we have built up working for, and with the Irish people for the last number of years to hold that, and to sustain that so we can keep employment high and unemployment low.

"We will not get into auction politics, just coming up with ideas put in by this one, or that one and putting them all together and having a mish-mash and putting out totally uncosted policies. We are watching very carefully what others are saying, and we are costing them. And we know exactly the position. What we do and what we say will be properly costed. They will be issues that we believe are sustainable if we keep the economy strong. Nobody can do anything in health, or anything in education, or anything in taxes unless we keep the economy strong."