The Opposition has reacted furiously to the decision by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, to vacate the Dáil yesterday to travel around the State to attend pre-election jobs announcements in key constituencies.
As Mr Ahern and Ms Harney presided at announcements of 1,300 jobs in Cork, Limerick, Birr and Galway, the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, said the Coalition leaders were engaged in "virtual full-time electioneering" around the State while expecting them to remain in the Dáil to ensure that it functioned.
Fianna Fáil's directors of election had a final pre-election meeting at Leinster House in Dublin last night. Speculation is continuing in Leinster House that the Taoiseach will dissolve the Dáil next week, calling an election for Friday, May 17th.
However May 24th has not yet been ruled out. While the Taoiseach speculated to reporters on Wednesday that it could even take place on May 31st, this is seen as most unlikely.
In the absence of the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, the Dáil was suspended for a time yesterday amid scenes of disorder over the non-availability of places of detention for teenage offenders.
The issue arose in the context of last weekend's deaths of two gardaí killed when a stolen car driven at speed crashed into their vehicle.
Several Opposition deputies complained that Mr Ahern and Ms Harney were "out canvassing", while refusing to dissolve the Dáil and get the election campaign formally under way.
Mr Ahern was in Cork for the formal announcement by Elan Corporation of its decision to establish a new bio-pharmaceutical plant in Macroom, creating 300 jobs. Elan's plans have been well known and widely reported over the past months.
Meanwhile, the Tánaiste travelled through the mid-west and west for announcements of nearly 1,000 new jobs in Limerick, Birr, Co Offaly, and Galway, in three key constituencies for the party.
On a day she billed as "surely a golden Thursday", she said an insurance group was to employ 600 more people in Galway, while an e-learning company would create 360 jobs in Limerick and Birr.
Ms Harney hailed the new jobs as "a phenomenal vote of confidence in Ireland and the Irish economy".
Last night she spoke at her party's selection convention in the Galway West constituency to choose a replacement candidate for Mr Bobby Molloy.
These announcements followed Wednesday's news that almost 400 civil servants are to be relocated to the Kildare North constituency of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
The decision, announced by Mr McCreevy, comes despite the fact that a major decentralisation programme for the Civil Service announced by the Minister more than three years ago has not begun.
In a further tidying up of difficult issues before the general election is called, the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, and representatives of haemophiliacs who contracted hepatitis C from contaminated blood products, reached agreement yesterday on a revised compensation scheme. Legislation to give effect to the scheme will go through the Dáil before it is dissolved.
The previous evening, the Minister for Justice announced a further 20 places for child offenders amid renewed controversy over juvenile justice in the wake of the deaths of the two gardaí.
In the last two days, the Opposition has tried to highlight the issue of crime, contrasting the Government's record with the "zero tolerance" promise of the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, in 1997.