The decisions will be influenced by ongoing polling of local electoral areas.

Fianna Fail is set to spend heavily on local polling to ensure it does not suffer the types of losses experienced in 2004. In the last local elections, Fianna Fail lost 80 council seats with the party's total number of councillors falling to 302. It was generally accepted that voters used their ballots to deliver a midterm thumping to government candidates. But FF insiders believe many seats were lost not because of national political considerations; party officers claim that half of the seat losses were because the party selected the wrong candidate. Poor quality candidates, and in many cases nohoper candidates, made their way through local selection conventions. In some cases, internal party dynamics assisted this process. Sitting TDs tended to favour weaker local candidates out of fear that a strong and successful local councillor would eventually threaten their own Dail position.

Increased interventionism in candidate selection was a feature of the last two general election campaigns. In last May's contest, Fianna Fail's constituencies committee, along with party headquarters, bypassed local organisations in several areas to attract candidates. Opinion polling in Wicklow, Meath East and Cavan-Monaghan showed that none of the ambitious local representatives, likely to come to selection conventions, would actually go on to win Dail seats.

Faced with this reality, the Cowen-led constituencies committee sought out alternative candidates.

John Behan in Wicklow, Thomas Byrne in Meath East and Margaret Conlon in Cavan-Monaghan were all identified by party headquarters. All three were selected after interviews but without any approval from their local Fianna Fail organisation. The decision not to hold selection conventions met with a mixed internal response. But the fact all three are now members of Dail Eireann has encouraged Fianna Fail to go further for the next local elections.

Little local resistance is anticipated to the move away from selection conventions, although the prospect of disappointed party members contesting as Independent candidates may increase on this occasion.

While Fianna Fail will be practising a no-vote policy for its members, Fine Gael will be following a 'one member, one vote' candidate selection strategy.

Like the other parties, Fine Gael is waiting to see what changes to local boundaries follow from last week's review of Dail constituencies.

Tom Curran, Fine Gael's general secretary, said the party would start organising conventions in March and April of next year. Fine Gael favours delegate conventions, although party headquarters has the power to direct its members to select candidates based on three specific considerations . . . geography, gender and generation (age). "It will be interesting to see whether participatory democracy wins versus democratic centralism, " Curran remarked.