Taoiseach tells TDs to start knocking on doors

Dublin Fianna Fail TDs and selected candidates were told this week by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to increase sharply their profiles in their constituencies over the summer months.

But the Government has strongly rejected suggestions that the meeting in Leinster House should be taken as a hint that a general election is imminent, saying the meeting had been planned a long time.

Supporters of the early-election theory say Mr Ahern could decide to run an election alongside the June 7th referendums on the Nice Treaty, Ireland's membership of the International Criminal Court and the abolition of the death penalty.

"I am no wiser about when the election is going to take place than I was before the meeting," a TD who attended said. "He told us to take advantage of the long evenings. He said we are going into an election in the next year. He told us to get out and shake hands with people and knock on a few doors."

The Taoiseach indicated that the next Budget, in December, would play a key role in Fianna Fail's bid to stay in power. "He seemed to be saying that the fifth Budget is just as important as the first," said one TD.

Another pointed out that Mr Ahern brought the same group together in the run-up to the summer break last year. "Bertie has a thing about the long evenings," he said.

Joking with the gathering, the Taoiseach said his own brother and fellow TD, Noel, insists that there will be an election in June. "He won't believe me when I say that there won't be."

During the meeting with about 25 TDs and first-time candidates, Mr Ahern encouraged the strongest candidates to help out weaker colleagues.

Most TDs are beginning to accept that an election will not be held until the late spring of next year, unless the Coalition comes to grief over Stadium Ireland.