Former tánaiste and leader of the Labour Party Dick Spring said this weekend he was determined to see the Labour Party regain the seat which it lost to Sinn Féin's Martin Ferris in Kerry North in 2002.
Mr Spring also launched a stinging attack on the current Tánaiste, Michael McDowell, over recent criticisms of the 1992 Labour coalition arrangement with Fianna Fáil.
Mr Spring was speaking at a press briefing in Tralee which was attended by party leader Pat Rabbitte, party candidate councillor Terry O'Brien, along with local Labour councillors and his sister, former councillor Maeve Spring.
He said he was totally committed to the campaign by Mr O'Brien.
"I am good to wear out at least three pairs of shoes. The Spring family are totally committed to winning back the seat."
Mr Spring said, however, he ruled out targeting the Sinn Féin seat, saying he heard all three TDs were about to lose their seats. "Terry will take any seat that's going," Mr Spring said.
Tralee now had one of the highest unemployment rates in the State (3,098 people are signing on the live register). As well as jobs, there were serious issues with the health service and there was no movement on the national spatial strategy which linked Killarney in Kerry South with Tralee.
"We will see a Labour Party campaign in both constituencies [ Kerry South Labour TD Breeda Moynihan-Cronin holds one of three seats there] that's very co-ordinated," the former party leader promised.
"If we win North Kerry, in the context of the election, we can change the Government," he said, adding he endorsed the Labour- Fine Gael pact.
Back from the Irish trade mission to the Gulf States last week, Mr Spring, who is a director of the financial services company Fexco, said he believed very strongly in Tralee and Killarney working together as a hub, but it needed to happen soon.
Asked about criticisms by Mr McDowell of the 1992 coalition arrangement, Mr Spring said Mr McDowell was the man who called his Taoiseach Ceausescu in 2002 and he should watch his words "very carefully".
"He is capable of a wild speech at breakfast time, a wild speech at lunchtime and a wild speech before or after dinner."
Mr Spring said 1992 had its own context "in terms of numbers " in Dáil Éireann at the time. The numbers were not there to put an alternative government together.
The numbers were there in 1994 when the rainbow coalition came together. This was the government "which set the foundation for the Celtic Tiger" after the financial crisis of 1992-93, he said.
"I am getting so excited now I think I am actually going to stand again. Terry has to buy a double stroller," he joked to journalists, referring to the birth this week of twins, Millie and Mark, to Mr O'Brien and his wife Teresa.
Mr Rabbitte told the press conference that Kerry North was "a critical constituency" for Labour in the general election.
Mr Rabbitte said: "If we win this seat, it's likely to change the Government."
The Labour Party was still very strong in the constituency - the Spring family held a seat for Labour there from 1943 to 2002 when Mr Spring lost by only hundreds of votes.
Mr Rabbitte paid tribute to the "courage and guts" of Mr O'Brien.
The wheelchair bound 37-year- old, who works as a development officer for the Irish Wheelchair Association, is both a county councillor and town councillor in the Tralee area.
He broke his neck following a swimming pool diving accident in New York in 1989.
A clear poll-topper in the last county council election, where he out-polled both Toireasa Ferris, the daughter of Martin Ferris, and Anne McEllistrim, the sister of Fianna Fáil TD Tom McEllistrim, if elected he would be the first wheelchair user in Dáil Éireann.
Mr O'Brien had "triumphed over adversity," Mr Rabbitte remarked.
Kerry North needed a Labour TD, he added.
"There was influence for Kerry when Dick Spring was in government. That just isn't there any more," Mr Rabbitte said.