May Bank Holiday Monday is brought to you courtesy of Ruairi Quinn and the Labour Party from our last period in Government in 1994..
As most people are enjoying the day off, I’m still on the trail for voters. It’s a quieter day today though. I try to get a balance between recharging the batteries and meeting with voters.

The morning gives me a chance to do some normal things like housework. My poor plants have been much neglected in the last few weeks. At least my garden is happy that some rain has fallen. With the weather not being as co-operative at the moment we have to adjust our plans and be a bit more cunning in finding the voters. A quick stop at the gym to maintain some semblance of keeping fit is followed by a visit to staff and patients at James Connolly hospital.

The rain holds off long enough to allow us to do a walkabout in one of the big housing estates. This is where all politics are really local. I have worked with people here right from my first day as a councillor on every possible housing and social issue. This is the hard grind of constituency politics. In between the chat about individual housing and welfare cases I try to point out the advantages of Labour’s pre-school proposals. Many young parents are interested about what that might mean for their children. When I was last a Minister I set up an ‘Early Start’ programme in one of the local schools. It is still running today and is very popular locally. Unfortunately, the current government decided to turn a blind eye to its success and refused to expand it.

The evening brings me out to one of the new towns that have sprung up in Dublin 15 over the last few years. I take a break for dinner in the local pub where the waitresses go out of their way to serve us quickly so we can hit the pavements. There’s a real family atmosphere in the place as kids run around while their parents enjoy a drink. I’ve to turn down many requests to join groups for drinks as people want to know what the latest twists and turns in the Bertie saga are.

The general reaction to Michael McDowell’s antics over the weekend is incredulity. People genuinely wonder what he is up to. Meanwhile, the FFers are scrambling around trying to change the story from Bertie’s money to leaks. Tom Parlon started the ball rolling with his bizarre story about FG’s 21st day plot and today its Noel Ahern’s turn. Noel seems desperate to deflect the story away from his brother and resorts to just generally blaming other parties for all the problems. I’m delighted that the Labour Party can just watch the sideshow and concentrate on getting our policies out there.

At the end of the day, the real issue is that Bertie’s Government has failed to build enough schools or provide good public transport.

The bank holiday offered a small break. There won’t be another till polling day.