Day 9

There's always a debate about whether it's a good idea to canvass on Bank Holiday Mondays or indeed Sundays. With only two and a half weeks left in the campaign the debate was short-lived this time. Every hour is vital - so a full afternoon and evening canvass is organised.

At the end of a six hour canvass we check the percentage of 'call backs' ie people who were out. It's no more or less than the average. I'm struck by the number of houses not on the register and the number of people away.

However, all in all it's a worthwhile exercise. People are engaging more and more. They've come to terms with the people knocking on their doors and are resigned to the fact that they can't ignore the election anymore - a bit like we all take a while to come to terms with Christmas as it approaches!

Today the Taoiseach's personal finance issues was raised about half a dozen times. Once by a lady with a large Green Party poster on her garage door! The other times people were expressing their distrust of what they saw as an attempt to hound Bertie. Interestingly, a number of FF stalwarts said they wouldn't vote for FF if they went into Government with the PDs after the events of the last few days.

Later in the evening, I did an interview with local community TV Province 5. I'm grilled on the election across a number of local issues by John O'Donoghue who could get a job on Morning Ireland yet.

A review of the week with Party workers and family members showed us making good progress on the canvass and a good response - plans were made for the coming weeks.