The strong lift to Fine Gael morale provided by its unprecedented capture of almost as many council seats as Fianna Fáil in the 2004 local elections gave its leader, Enda Kenny, a crucial personal boost, of which he took full advantage during his subsequent tours of the country.
Meanwhile, the Labour rank-and-file had elected a leader from outside the traditional party structure who was not inhibited from recognising and acting upon the reality that the only possibility of heading off permanent Fianna Fáil control of government - through opportunistic switching of partners so as to suit varying moods of the electorate - lay in a Labour/Fine Gael alliance.
Up to last summer all that boded very well for a possible change of government in 2007. But there was always a danger that without a visible change of gear by the Opposition as the election began to loom, the short-term success of that "soft" mid-term political approach would breed complacency, and that voters would begin to feel sufficient reason was not being given them to switch their votes from the Government parties.
Whatever party activists may feel, election outcomes are not decided by their committed votes - as distinct from the support that may certainly be won by their hard work on the ground - and at election time it is a waste of time appealing to their partisan views. On election day the result is decided instead by floating voters and nowadays there are many more of them than ever before.
Of course, some floating voters switch their allegiances in pursuit of their own personal material advantage, or those of vested interests with whom they are involved. But the genuine floaters - and the ones who I believe often decide the final outcome of many elections - are people who actually want the country to be well-governed in the public interest.
The significance of this key group tends to be underestimated by many politicians, most of whose political lives are necessarily spent with active and partisan party supporters, while at the same time being hotly pursued by self-interested advocates of a multiplicity of vested interests.
By contrast with these two kinds of close political engagement, politicians rarely have occasion to encounter genuine disinterested floaters.
Consequently, our political parties tend to be insensitive to the kinds of issues that decide how floaters cast their votes.
Now, as we are entering the final six months before the June election, those voters who will seek to use their vote to secure the best government available are starting to weigh up the choice they will have to make between a renewal of Fianna Fáil-led government and the installation of a Fine Gael-Labour alternative. I believe that five principal factors will influence these voters.
First, the economy. Since 2002 the economy has performed well and it is unlikely to suffer a setback within the electoral timescale - whatever may happen thereafter. The Opposition will find it difficult to score on this issue. But neither, for their part, will the Government make much headway with futile attempts to paint Labour in government as potentially irresponsible in relation to fiscal policy.
That kind of argument will carry very little conviction in view of the very cautious fiscal policy adopted by Ruairí Quinn as minister for finance between 1994 and 1997 - when he increased current spending at a rate that was barely half the annual increase by the present Government in the current decade. (Average annual increase: 1995-1997: 6.3 per cent. 2000-2005: 11.8 per cent. Source: National Income and Expenditure, Table 10.)
A second issue that could secure the Opposition more support than perhaps they realise would be a convincing commitment to tackle the greatly increased inequalities that Fianna Fáil have allowed to distort our society, making it today one of the most unequal in Europe.
This issue is a cause of a good deal more public unease than many politicians realise, and a commitment to secure a better balance within society, within our present tax envelope, rather than instead allowing legitimate grievances over inequality to fester, would, I believe, be widely acceptable, and indeed welcome, to a much broader element of the electorate than some politicians may realise.
A third issue for many concerned floating voters will be the extent to which after the election either of the alternative administrations would be likely to tackle effectively the many vested interests which still exploit the public.
Here the record of the present Government has been remarkably poor. Such disparate vested interests as protectionist elements among developers, hospital consultants, and bus workers have all been allowed to hold up reforms that would have been hugely advantageous to ordinary citizens.
Any opposition party willing to commit itself to taking on any of these groups could swing large numbers of votes in its favour - many more than they could possibly lose from among the actual members of these interest groups.
For the public, moreover, health policy represents a fourth political issue. If the Opposition could produce a health policy that would carry conviction with an electorate who on this issue are totally frustrated and disillusioned - not an easy thing to do, I admit, after years of political mismanagement of health - they could win very many votes.
Finally, a fifth political issue that, unhappily, does not seem to engage the generality of voters but that does greatly concern an important minority of key floaters, is the integrity of our political system at both national and local levels, which has been put in doubt by a variety of malpractices.
These malpractices include such abuses as the appointment of inadequately qualified directors to State boards as political favours; the unjust diversion of a disproportionate share of public resources to the constituencies of Cabinet Ministers; and finally the obvious dangers created by dependence of politicians or political parties upon funding from business sources.
A clear commitment by Opposition parties in the months ahead to tackling matters such as these could win them significant support from many floating voters in the months ahead.
On the other hand, in the absence of clear evidence of such serious intent - and if instead during the run-up to the election the Opposition were to confine their attentions to the usual populist issues and to negative criticism of the Government - key floating voters might not feel impelled to vote for a change of regime that would seem to them unlikely to effect any serious change in the way the country is run.
PS: John Deasy hasn't helped his party by talking about a possible election setback, and he appears to be unfamiliar with the Fine Gael constitution which precludes the need for any post-election challenge to the leadership because a vote of confidence by secret ballot follows automatically in those circumstances.