The Fianna Fail selection convention for the Laois/Offaly constituency went as smoothly as silk last weekend, but the party's search for a candidate to replace former Taoiseach Mr Albert Reynolds in Longford/Roscommon looks more like wrinkled cotton.
This weekend the party faithful will hold a special conference in Longford, attended by Mr Reynolds and the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, and local TDs, Senators, MEPs and elected representatives.
Despite the instruction from Mount Street that all candidates should have been selected before the end of September, it now looks as if the party in Longford will have to wait well into the New Year to have its candidates.
The delay seems to centre on whether Mr Reynolds's son, Philip, who runs the family pet food business in Edgeworths town, will be seeking the nomination. Until recently, Mr Reynolds's closest adviser in the county, Mr Peter Kelly, was the front-runner in the race, as none of the Reynolds family appeared interested in taking over the vacancy.
However, in recent weeks a local Fianna Fail "think tank" has been set up and it has been canvassing delegates from the 35 party cumainn on whether they would vote for Mr Reynolds jnr if he put his name forward.
This has caused irritation in the ranks of those seeking the nomination, especially in the Kelly camp, who believe that if Philip Reynolds wants to go, he should make a full frontal challenge.
The emergence of Philip Reynolds is understood to have scared off the candidate with the highest profile, Ciaran Mullooley, RTE's midlands correspondent. He is understood to have told Fianna Fail that he is no longer interested in standing.
The nomination race is complicated even more by the fact that candidates have yet to be selected in Roscommon, the western part of the constituency, where former junior minister Mr Terry Leyden is putting in a lot of work to get a nomination.
For the record, there was no challenge at all to the sitting Laois-Offaly team, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, Mr John Moloney and Mr Sean Fleming. Running with them will be an Offaly councillor, Mr Gerard Killally.
The expected challenge from councillors Mr Tom Nolan of Offaly and Mr Kieran Phelan of Laois did not materialise - and the team was selected without a vote being cast.