Nealon's Guide to the 29th Dail and Seanad will be without Ted Nealon, because, at the age of 70 and after nine productions of the parliamentary directory - now the standard reference book of Irish politics - he has retired. He has sold the title and future copyright and licence to a partnership of The Irish Times and the publishers, Gill and Macmillan. The Irish Times will be responsible for the editorial copy and photos and Gill and Macmillan will print and distribute the book. Part of the deal is that the Nealon name remains. A former FG TD for Sligo Leitrim, party press secretary and journalist, Nealon produced his first guide, to the 20th Dail, in 1973. It is partly self-financing, for despite selling only about 8,000 copies, it carries advertisements which help offset the expensive template giving the PR figures.
The big question remaining is when will the 29th Nealon's Guide become available? It's something every politician in the land wants to know, not least Bertie Ahern and John Bruton. Traditionally, the guide carries a foreword by the outgoing Taoiseach and is launched by the incoming one. Work is already under way on the next edition but it is only after the election that the details can be filled in and then, despite the competition between various similar publications to be first out, there's a 60-day wait for the Seanad results and they have to be slotted in before the volume rolls off the presses.