The main political parties have been holding their final press conferences today ahead of local, European and by-elections on Friday.
Voters are set to elect 130 city councillors, 753 county councillors, 60 borough councillors and 684 town councillors in local elections. The electorate will also be voting to select candidates to fill the two vacant Dáil seats in Dublin Central and Dublin South and 12 seats in the European Parliament.
Speaking at the final media briefing of the Fianna Fáil campaign, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the Government would serve its full term in office.
He urged voters to make what he called "rational decisions". He said they were choosing the best local councillors and MEPs, not picking a government.
Mr Cowen was joined by Ministers Noel Dempsey, who is director of elections for the local elections and Micheál Martin, the party's director of elections for the European parliament campaign.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny addressed a media briefing at the party's headquarters in Mount Street along with deputy leader Richard Bruton and byelection candidates, George Lee (Dublin South) and Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central).
Mr Kenny said the electorate had a "stark yet simple choice: Do we want change or do we want more of the same? Do we want a new team, a new vision and a fresh start or do we want the same tired bunch…the same failed approach that has run the country into the ditch and has no idea how to get us out?"
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said his party was entering the final phase of the campaign in a "confident and determined mood".
"These are the most important set of mid-term elections that I can remember. From the beginning, they have been an opportunity for the people to deliver their verdict on the Fianna Fáil Government," Mr Gilmore said.
He said they were also an opportunity to begin the work of national recovery and to leave behind the "failed conservatism" of the past.
Mr Gilmore was joined at a media briefing by deputy leader, Joan Burton, who is the party's national director of elections, and the candidates in the two byelections, Senator Alex White and Senator Ivana Bacik.
Green Party leader John Gormley said a vote for the Greens would help deliver green jobs and a better quality of life.
He was joined at the party's final press briefing by deputy leader Mary White and MEP candidates Deirdre de Burca and Dan Boyle.
Speaking at Sinn Féin’s final press briefing this morning, party president Gerry Adams said voters would have their say on Fianna Fáil and the economy.
“People need to turn their anger into action," he said. "If people want a party that will stand up for Ireland, that will stand up for ordinary people and ordinary communities, then they should vote for Sinn Féin in the local government, the European and the by elections."
The broadcasting moratorium on election issues is due to come into effect at midnight. Under the moratorium the broadcast media are expected not to report on election issues until counting begins.