Fianna Fail are set to return to government, perhaps with an overall majority. 

What's wrong with you people? If the latest polls are to be believed Fianna Fáil are actually going up in the polls according to the latest polls! One would have thought the voters were dying to get their revenge on Fianna Fáil for all their litany of broken promises and years of underinvestment in areas of key infrastructure such as the health service, public transport, education and housing, but to name a few, not to mention Fianna Fáil's complicity in the Iraqi war by allowing U.S.

The Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, has ruled out going into government with Sinn Fein. Speaking on the Today with Pat Kenny show he said that Fianna Fail's and Sinn Fein's incompatibility had nothing to do with Sinn Fein's past and was rooted in their differing policies. He highlighted tax as one area of incompatibility.

Labour are running 11 general election candidates out of 50.

Emma Browne takes a stroll around the Botanic Gardens in Dublin. Photos by Eoin Moylan

With all the criticism Bertie Ahern has been getting recently about his finances, his party's overspending in government and their broken promises, there is a less-highlighted positive that has come out of his 10-year reign as Taoiseach – the rehabilitation of the National Botanic Gardens.

The Comptroller and Auditor General has concluded that the state paid “at least twice the market price” when they purchased land in North County Dublin for a new super prison containing the relocated Mountjoy and Central Mental Hospital. In the report, published in September 2006, it said that agricultural land in the area was selling at between €20,000 and €30,000 per acre, at the time of purchase in 2005. But the government bought 150 acres at €200,000 an acre for the prison complex site, a total purchase price of €29.9 million.

An ESRI report criticises lack of ‘research, studies, evaluations, or documentations' as well as no cost benefit analysis.

Reports published by the Institute of Public Health have highlighted inequality of a massive scale between the health of Ireland's lower and higher occupational classes. The reports also indicate a significant difference between the health of Irish people as compared with our European counterparts. 

Transport 21 was launched by the Fianna Fail-PD government in November 2005, but without any breakdown of costs for the policy's constituent parts. Here Village outlines 21 problems with Ireland's present Transport strategy.

In 2002 the Rail Procurement Agency (RPA) was given the responsibility of overseeing an integrated ticketing system for Dublin. This would allow customers to carry one ticket that would work on all public transport in the Greater Dublin area.