With Fine Gael hopeful of winning a seat in Tipperary South this weekend, the party will be turning its sights on winning back two seats in Limerick East, the home constituency of its leader, Michael Noonan.
Interest has focused on the seat being vacated by the former Progressive Democrats leader, Mr Des O'Malley, and in the pre-general election phoney war, canvassing by the candidates is intense.
Waiting in the wings are Mr O'Malley's cousin and party colleague, county councillor Tim O'Malley, city councillor Peter Power of Fianna Fail and Senator Mary Jackman of Fine Gael.
With a longer memory than the Progressive Democrats, Fine Gael is looking back to the days prior to 1987 when both Tom O'Donnell and Mr Noonan held seats. At the next election, Senator Jackman will make her third outing to gain a Dail seat.
Labour's second candidate, Councillor John Ryan, the current city mayor, has dropped out of the race, partly due to health reasons. "I also decided I wanted a change in direction. One brought the other home to me. I do not know if I want to spend the rest of my life working to spend three nights at work in Dublin and then rushing back to Limerick to attend meeting after meeting with people who, in most cases, are giving out."
City Councillor Peter Power is also a candidate for the next mayor of Limerick, a post which will be decided on Monday. Despite the added public profile this position would bring, it is likely to go to fellow Fianna Fail Councillor Dick Sadlier. Mr Power, a solicitor, said he was philosophical about this, pointing out it will give him the freedom to run a general election campaign. Aged 35, he is the youngest candidate in the constituency and the only one of the main parties' candidates living in the city's north side. He is canvassing now "every night" and said housing, traffic congestion and childcare facilities are at the top of people's minds.
An added advantage to his bid for the Dail will be the transfers he might expect to gain from Minister of State and poll topper Willie O'Dea at the expense of the constituency's second Fianna Fail TD, Eddie Wade.
Mr Power added that where Des O'Malley's votes go will be critical for winning the elusive fifth seat. The PD candidate, Mr Tim O'Malley, is determined to hold on to them. As a pharmacist and health board member, he is conscious of the importance of health issues.
"I am working full time as a politician for the past year now both in the health board and the county council. I am doing quite an amount of canvassing and speaking to people about the issues in Limerick."
He polled well in the local elections of 1990, making the quota in the first count and, in the 1997 by-election, he won 10 per cent of the vote.
Senator Jackman, also a county councillor, will be making her third attempt at entering the Dail. She topped the poll in the Castleconnell electoral area in the 1999 local elections. She said she had been chipping away at reclaiming the second seat coming from under quota "to the last general election, where I barely lost out".
She will also get a leg-up from Mr Noonan being the first potential Limerick Taoiseach. A teacher living in Castletroy, she canvasses every week, doing walkabouts, distributing leaflets and knocking on doors.
"They generally say we are delighted to see you between elections."