Fianna Fáil is continuing to face the political fallout of a decision to delay funding for the inner-relief road through Sligo, with the town's Chamber of Commerce condemning the Government's "phenomenal ignorance".
In a constituency where a TG4 poll has indicated Fianna Fáil will lose a seat to Independent Ms Marian Harkin, party workers openly admit they were "shocked" at the decision and say unless it can be reversed, candidates and canvassers will face a tough task. Local Fianna Fáil people feel let down by Dublin.
Business leaders have pointed out that this road has been planned for more than 20 years, and that the gridlock is now affecting competitiveness and potential investment.
With the retirement of Mr Mattie Brennan, Fianna Fáil is fielding two candidates, Sligo town-based Dr Jimmy Devins and Ballymote-based Mr Eamon Scanlon, to run with Mr John Ellis in Leitrim.
Dr Devins said he was "absolutely appalled" at the decision. "The election is going to be very tight. As the Sligo town-based Fianna Fáil candidate it is a decision that is dreadful," he said.
Dr Devins said he was seeking "an urgent meeting" with the Taoiseach and Minister for the Environment to impress on them the importance of ensuring the project went ahead this year as expected.
"I am calling on the Government to make a specific allocation to the NRA for the inner relief road," he said.
Although it is the NRA's role to decide which projects get funding, there seems to be an acceptance that the Government will be blamed by the electorate. The clear impression locally is that Government did not place enough priority on Sligo.
Dr Devins led a delegation of councillors to meet the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, before Christmas to impress on him the importance of the road. Mr McCreevy gave the NRA an extra €50 million but Sligo received €1.27 million, sufficient only to cover archaeological works, which means the project will be delayed for at least a year.
Fine Gael's Mr Gerry Reynolds dismissed the complaints of local Fianna Fáil people. "They are all the same team and the team hasn't delivered," he said.
He pointed out that Fine Gael has given a commitment to borrow, if necessary, to ensure capital projects included in the National Development Plan, such as the Sligo inner relief road, are completed on time.
Fianna Fáil TD Mr John Ellis, who gets the vast bulk of his vote in Co Leitrim, insisted the road would still go ahead. He said he had already met the Taoiseach to explain how crucial the issue was.
He and fellow Fianna Fáil TD Mr Mattie Brennan would be going back to Mr Ahern and Mr Dempsey to get them to put more pressure on the NRA, he said.
Council officials in Sligo have said that between €8.9 million to €12.7 million was needed this year to ensure the project kept to schedule. Mr Ellis said most of this was for land acquisitions and as there was a statutory obligation for payment to be made with eight weeks of arbitrations, which have already been taking place, this money would have to be paid anyway.
He believed there was only a need for an additional €2 million for final preparations on the site this year to allow the project go to tender as planned.
Meanwhile the Chamber of Commerce and a newly formed "action group" led by a local businessman are calling on people to mobilise to ensure funding is provided.
A statement issued after a board meeting of the Chamber of Commerce "condemned the phenomenal ignorance displayed by the Government in the context of the critical infrastructural deficiencies of Sligo".
The Government's planned spending in the NDP had "done little or nothing of infrastructural significance in its stated primary pursuit of redressing the regional imbalance between this and the South and East regions".
It said Sligo's traffic problem was "the single biggest issue for its citizens, industrialists and potential investors alike" and called on business people, community organisations and private citizens "to mobilise and unite in a vigorous lobby of Government, and their representative constituency councillors, TDs and aspiring deputies".
The director of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr Marc MacSharry, said that while the traffic problems continue, a lot of the IDA's work to attract investment may be in vain.
He said the Chamber of Commerce would not be telling people how to vote but would urge people to lobby whoever they could.