Poll reaction:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday attempted to play down the latest Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll which shows Fianna Fáil making significant gains.
Mr Ahern said the only poll that matters was Thursday, but accepted that recent opinion poll figures "would indicate that it's very close".
"We would hope that all the people who agree with us and support our policies would come out and vote for us."
He urged Fianna Fáil voters to consider giving preferences to the Progressive Democrats and the so-called "gene pool independent candidates who tend to support Fianna Fáil".
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said Mr Ahern would remain as Taoiseach "for as long as he wishes" into the next Dáil term if Fianna Fáil retained power.
"He will be our nominee for Taoiseach, and we hope he will be elected Taoiseach.
"He will remain Taoiseach for as long as he wishes. The people of this country know that, and they will be voting for him continuing as their leader for the foreseeable future."
Mr Ahern has repeatedly said he will retire from full-time politics at 60, regardless of whether he is still Taoiseach or not. This would mean that he would do so on or before September 11th, 2011.
Mr Cowen also sought to play down the poll findings. "The real poll is on Thursday. It is the only one that counts."
Meanwhile, the Fine Gael and Labour leaders said they were not downhearted by the results of the Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll which saw Fine Gael drop one point to 27 and Labour drop three points to 10.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said he does not believe the latest opinion poll, and said the poll he listened to was the one the party had taken up in 43 constituencies over the last three years.
"When I see a situation where the Taoiseach of the country should congratulate himself on the state of the health service, I really do get angry. This is only a poll and the real poll is Thursday.
"We had a similar poll a month ago when the Fine Gael party had a 5 per cent bounce and we didn't accept that as benign reality at the time."
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said no one other than postal voters have cast their votes.
"We will see what happens on Thursday. That is the poll that matters. As far as I am concerned Labour has never run a more professional campaign. I don't believe the mood for change out there has changed."
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent expressed confidence that his party would exert "leverage" on a new government.
Responding to the opinion poll, which recorded a 1 per cent increase for the party to 6 per cent, Mr Sargent said it was good for the Greens at this stage in the campaign.
It indicated that the party could "exert leverage", and there could be "movement on cleaning up politics" to remove the "culture of corporate donations".