EAST Coast Radio's local fortune teller - "I call myself a new age consultant" was in danger of losing his regular fortnightly slot to the Liz and Proinsias show. They were doing a joint interview and taking listeners' questions as part of the north Wicklow station's election coverage, and were running over time.
Denis Holly's prediction was not what the guests wanted to hear. "The moon changes the day of the election," he told the Democratic Left leader and his entourage. "People will be adventurous and go for change."
"I wouldn't think so," replied Proinsias. "The challenge is to stick with what you've got, for the first time for 30 years.
A horse was grazing on the treeless patch of grass opposite the Fassaroe Resource Centre, the next stop for the Minister for Social Welfare and Liz McManus, his party colleague. As Minister of State for Housing she had been responsible for having the houses in this local authority estate refurbished, and she is clearly well-known in the estate.
A sign of how well-known she is in the area can be seen in the style of one of her posters, an orange diamond attached to lamp-posts, saying simply "Liz".
A group of local women activists had assembled in the resource centre to meet them. If Mr De Rossa thought this would be a captive audience to hear about improvements to social welfare, he was mistaken. Niamh Horgan immediately launched into a litany of their concerns.
"Fassaroe is in a crisis situation with heroin," she said. "The policy of pushing pushers out in town is pushing them in here. They're coming out in taxis from town and asking where the playground in Fassaroe is. We got funding for a centre and an addiction counsellor has been appointed but it's been blocked. Why does the Government have this policy and can't do anything?"
The Government was doing something, she was told. But people had to be persuaded to accept centres, they resisted things which seemed new.
Outside in the estate the builders were still working on the refurbishment, which is costing about £15,000 a house.
One voter buttonholed the Minister for Social Welfare. Her husband had an English pension, but she had nothing in her own right. "I had cancer, and the doctor told me to go on disability. I broke my arm too, and they set it wrong."
Proinsias tried to establish how many stamps and credits she had and to explain the difference between a disability allowance and disability benefit. "I'm sorry I have to take him away," interrupted Liz. "Would you come down to the office. Leave it till after Friday."
It was nearly one o'clock, and he was due at a local school, where a camera crew from UTV would be waiting. But first he had to stop and admire the Fassaroe community centre, which is due for a substantial expansion.
Women, and a few men, were hurrying away from St Fergal's national school with their children as the cavalcade arrived. "Come and say `Hello' to Proinsias De Rossa," urged Liz. But most people wanted to talk to her. "I wanted to ask you, are they going to put a bridge up for the children?" said one mother. They were, she was assured.
Interviews with Radio na Gaeltachta and with UTV were fitted in among the handshakes. Then it was into the school yard to greet a group of young children.
They went wild, shrieking, jumping up and down and waving. They were looking, not at the Minister, but at the television camera following him.