"I didn't even stop. The fellow on the tractor must have thought I was mad, " recalls the junior finance minister, without bravado or jocularity.

He is in the front passenger seat, the name 'Bugatti' stitched into the back of his upturned jacket collar. At the wheel is Tim O'Leary, a farmer friend and veteran of Parlon's IFA presidential campaign, who has come up from Blarney to drive him around the bucolic byways of Laois. 'Parlon Country' streams past the BMW's windows: confident, newbuilt mansions nudging into the picture alongside refurbished farmhouses with high ceilings and pristine yards. A copy of the local newspaper lies on the back seat, the splash above the fold reporting the incremental arrival of Fas workers in Birr as part of Parlon's decentralisation portfolio.

Birr is the PD president's stronghold in the Laois-Offaly five-seater, shared with Fine Gael's Olwyn Enright. When Enda Kenny came to town last week, somebody shoved a brush into his hand and the putative next taoiseach began sweeping the footpath outside Parlon's office until the door swung open and out swooped Parlon's staff to shoo him away.

Before making his own general election debut in 2002, he admits, "I used to vote for Cowen and Enright in different variations".

Now Brian Cowen, whose dynastic fiefdom is Tullamore, is his senior minister in Merrion Street and the PD man speaks amicably of Fianna Fail's leader-in-waiting.

Parlon's friendliness with Fianna Fail has sparked rumours that the former IFA president might be disposed to enlist with the Soldiers of Destiny if the PDs have a bad election.

The speculation was reinvigorated by his exhortations at the PDs' crisis meeting in John Dardis's house last weekend not to pull out of government over the controversy surrounding Bertie Ahern's finances, though he insists his was the majority view.

"There was only one person concerned about staying in and I'm not going to say who that was, " he replies when asked if it was deputy leader Liz O'Donnell.

Pundits are warning that O'Donnell's Dublin South seat is in jeopardy but local polls are showing ominous signs for Parlon's seat too. In 2002, he won 9,022 first preferences which, he readily agrees, was "the farming vote". His election jettisoned Fine Gael's Charlie Flanagan after 60 unbroken years' tenure in the Dail by himself and his famous father, Oliver J.

The Blueshirts, with only one TD in this classic Fine Gael heartland, sandwiched between three Fianna Failers (Cowen, Sean Fleming and John Moloney), are determined to wrest Flanagan's seat back. Besides, they're still smarting at Parlon's Caesarean allegation that Enda Kenny was plotting a "bombshell" leak about Bertie Ahern for 21 May.

Portlaoise being Flanagan's bailiwick, Parlon trespasses on enemy territory when he stops for a bowl of mushroom soup in the Midway hotel, perched beside the motorway. He might, nevertheless, expect a friendly reception, what with most of the town's jobs provided by the state in the two prisons, the hospital and the relocation of the Department of Agriculture's HQ. Instead, he gets a tonguelashing from a fellow diner about Fianna Fail corruption.

"It's one thing I won't let people get away with, " Parlon vows as he returns to the car.

"People feel they can say whatever they like about politicians, the most horrendous things."

Do you like Bertie Ahern?

"Personally, I like Bertie and I've known him a long time."

In the tranquil village of Timahoe, postmaster Arthur Kerr greets the OPW minister with another embittered sally. "The last time you were around here, I didn't think ye were going to go into government with those guys. They're crooks."

"It's been alleged. . ." Parlon tries to answer, but the postmaster has not finished. The cause of his ire, it transpires, is that four acres he owned and which he was about to sell to a Tullamore developer for 600,000 were de-zoned by Dick Roche before he could close the transaction.

"A lot of the talk around here was that it was done because Fianna Fail didn't have control of the county council. Ye should have come along and bought it off me instead of Thornton Hall."

Among the Cough Tablets and Cola Whips, the Brillo Pads and bundles of Ireland's Own and the Irish Catholic on display in the post office, the headline on the Farmers Journal shouts up from the counter: 'Fine Gael on the Rise as FF feel the Heat'.

Tom Parlon plans to spend up to 60,000 on his re-election campaign. He has 80 square miles to cover and a fast-growing population served by six local newspapers. He has a 50 bet on himself to hold his seat at 6/4 odds. Asked if he has ever been offered a bribe, either as a politician or during his time in the IFA, he replies: "Absolutely not".

He goes from farmhouse to farmhouse, patting sheepdogs and spaniels and declining cups of tea. "How's the form? I'm looking for your number one, " he says. "I'd like to see you get back but you should be Minister for Agriculture, " says a woman boiling cabbage and drying clothes on her Aga. "I'd like that myself, " he agrees.

Most people treat him politely, making it difficult to assess his prospects. They offer evasive platitudes such as "I'll definitely fit you in", and "We'll try our best for you, begad". It is remarkable how few of the issues raised are specifically local. Political probity, sheep and cattle prices and the health service are the recurrent themes. Not all national matters engage him, however. Asked if the PDs would legislate on abortion on foot of the Miss D judgement if returned to government, he says: "I've let that issue go over my head. I've enough on my mind at the moment. I don't have a view on it."

At one house, a woman recounts how her 19-year-old son fell off the roof while sleepwalking, fracturing his skull, his jaw and his elbow. He had to be transferred from Portlaoise hospital to Tullamore for a scan, even though there was a state-of-the-art unused scanner in the first hospital. When he had his operation in St James's in Dublin, his 25-bed ward closed down every weekend.

Having listened sympathetically for a while, the candidate ventures: "Does he have a vote?"

Laois Offaly (five seats) Declared candidates FF: Brian Cowen TD, Sean Fleming TD, John Moloney TD, John Foley FG: Olwyn Enright TD, Charles Flanagan, Molly Buckley Labour: David Whelan, Jim O'Brien PD: Tom Parlon TD GP: Maire McKay SF: Cllr Brian Stanley Ind: John Bracken 2002 GENERAL ELECTION 5 seats, 14 candidates, electorate: 95,373, quota 10,537 1st prefs % count elected Brian Cowen (FF) 12,529 19.82% 1 Tom Parlon (PD) 9,088 14.38% 5 Olwyn Enright (FG) 8,053 12.74% 6 John Moloney (FF) 8,093 12.80% 6 Sean Fleming (FF) 7,091 11.22% 6 Charles Flanagan (FG) 6,500 10.28% Ger Killally (FF) 4,719 7.46% Brian Stanley (SF) 2,600 4.11% Molly Buckley (IHA) 1,695 2.68% Christopher Fettes (GP) 520 0.82% Joe McCormack (Ind) 351 0.56% John Kelly (Ind) 236 0.37% Michael Redmond (CS) 142 0.22% Total valid 63,217 66.28% Spoilt votes 671 1.05% Total poll 63,888 66.99% PD14.4% Others 3.8% SF 4.1 GP 0.8% Lab 2.6%