Cork North Central delivered handsomely to Fianna Fail in the last election, with the party securing three of the five seats.
As the party celebrated its would-be coalition partner, the Progressive Democrats, were devastated by the loss of their seat with the defeat of Ms Mairin Quill, who had held it, sometimes against the odds, for a decade. Ms Quill was subsequently appointed to the Seanad as one of the Taoiseach's nominees, but recently announced that she would leave national politics at the next general election.
The PDs have yet to announce who will replace Ms Quill as a candidate, but the party will face an uphill battle to win back the seat. She was an effective votegetter, as was evident in her polltopping 1,222-vote performance in last year's Cork Corporation elections. But some of her vote was personal and included disaffected Fianna Fail supporters in the former stronghold of Jack Lynch.
Ms Quill, a native of Kilgarvan, Co Kerry (which is also the home base of Mr Jackie Healy-Rae TD), worked as a teacher for several years in Cork city. ail, She was a strong Lynch supporter and a Fianna Fail Dail candidate before leaving the party to join the Progressive Democrats. She was first elected to the Dail on the PD ticket in 1987.
A chaotic campaign nationally by the PDs contributed significantly to Ms Quill's defeat in the last election. She suffered a drop of over 4 per cent in her vote, securing 3,304 first preferences.
The Fianna Fail vote, meanwhile, was up by 7.27 per cent. Newcomer Mr Noel O'Flynn, a businessman, secured the last seat with a hefty transfer from Ms Quill, following her elimination after the ninth count.
The other seats were taken by Mr O'Flynn's party colleagues, Mr Dan Wallace, now Minister of State for the Environment, and Mr Billy Kelleher, Fine Gael's Mr Bernard Allen, who topped the poll, and his party colleague, Mr Liam Burke, who was next in first preferences.
Mr O'Flynn has taken to politics with relish, regularly expressing his views, in a sometimes outspoken fashion, inside and outside the Dail. "Fianna Fail will hold its three seats, because the Government is delivering to Cork," he says.
But Labour, with candidate Ms Kathleen Lynch, a former Democratic Left TD, will make a strong bid for a seat. Labour took a seat in the constituency in spectacular fashion in 1992, when the late Gerry O'Sullivan topped the poll.
Ms Lynch, as the DL candidate, was ahead of Labour's Ms Sheila O'Sullivan.
Following the Labour-DL merger, Ms Lynch will be the Labour candidate the next time, and is expected to launch a strong challenge to return to the Dail at the expense of Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. On the figures for the last election Fianna Fail would appear to be most vulnerable, but the party insists that it will regain a significant percentage of Ms Quill's vote.