The party machines have roared into action with more immediacy and impact than for any previous general election. The undeclared campaign which has been under way since the beginning of the year is now official and will be waged intensively over the next three weeks.
On May 17th the electorate will have its say and the composition of the 29th Dáil will emerge thereafter.
On Wednesday night the Taoiseach told a near-empty chamber that he intended to exercise his prerogative and would request the President to dissolve the House the following morning. Thus, the 28th Dáil came to an end not with a bang but a whimper. Mr Ahern antagonised outgoing members by depriving them of the opportunity to say some parting words or to take their place in the chamber for the last time.
Whatever the Taoiseach's reasoning, the old Dáil is dead and there is no time to mourn its passing. It was remarkable for its longevity. The coalition partners promised a full five years and they delivered on that promise. It was also remarkable in a number of other respects. It saw one of its most prominent members in and out of Mountjoy prison. It saw others lose their party whip in controversial circumstances. It saw a significant extension of the role of parliament with the Dirt inquiry, although that extension has since been qualified by the Supreme Court judgment on the Abbeylara inquiry.
Mr Ahern said earlier in the week that people would look back on his five years of government as a "golden era". That claim must await the full verdict of history but it will be tested, in the first instance, on May 17th. Most of the electorate would probably feel that things were a great deal better at the beginning and the middle of the 28th Dáil than at its end.
Conflicting omens on the economy were manifest on the day the Dáil was dissolved. Intel confirmed its intention to proceed, after a period of uncertainty, with its major development at Leixlip. That decision represents a significant vote of confidence in Ireland. But ominously, a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identified a serious deterioration in the public finances.
There is broad agreement on external issues among the main parties - on Northern Ireland, on Europe, on international relations. The election will be first and foremost about the economy. Which party or parties can best preserve the gains of recent years and sustain future growth? But it has to be as much about how the national wealth is shared. Issues of health, opportunity, education, immigration, crime, the environment, services and infrastructure - all go back to fundamental economic - and therefore political - decisions and choices.
Ireland's is now a high-earning economy. This does not make it a rich country. The Celtic Tiger era has not universally brought quality of life. We have a society that is more bitter, more violent, more polluted, more disgruntled and more polarised than before the great economic leap forward of recent years. The challenge of the next Dáil and the next Government will be to reverse these pernicious trends.