If FF doesn't reverse the poll trend - west's household names in trouble.

Fianna Fáil couldn’t believe their luck this week as Fine Gael went into ‘blow-it’ mode. But Taoiseach Brian Cowen will be putting the celebrations on hold – they still have to climb out of their worst ever slump in the polls.

The Irish Times poll predicting a labour ‘tsunami’ may have caused more trouble in Fine Gael initially than it did for a Fianna Fáil hitting rock bottom – but that FF slump has been going on now for two years and even household names may be in danger if the vote stays stubbornly down.

What we badly need now are answers in each of the Galway constituencies – a mere €7,000 on opinion polls in both Galway East and Galway West would tell you whether Fianna Fáil’s Michael Kitt TD or Noel Treacy TD could be under threat from Fine Gael looking for a third seat, or maybe Labour candidate Colm Keaveney seeking a breakthrough.

Minister Eamon Ó Cuív, and Dáil deputies Frank Fahey, Noel Treacy and Michael Kitt are ‘heavy hitters’ in FF in these parts, but, if the vote falls, the results will be no respecter of names.

Remember people like Alan Dukes, Jim Mitchell, Alan Shatter, Frances Fitzgerald and Nora Owen losing their seats a few years back in that FG massacre?Those potentially in the firing line in Galway West, if support for the government parties were to fall, have to be Ó Cuív or Fahey, or, perhaps even independent Noel Grealish, the former PD, who supports the government.

Times are hard, but surely there must still be someone out there with a few grand stashed away who could afford to do a detailed opinion poll on Galway West and let us know how that FF ticket of Ó Cuív, Fahey and Councillor Michael Crowe might fare.

For instance, Ó Cuív might particularly like to know if there’s any fallout from the recent publicity in relation to old age pension cuts (denied) and the proposed change in the single parent allowance, eventually limiting the benefit to families with children under 13.

The only semblance of an opinion poll we have had in Galway West in ages was that ‘phone-in poll’ a few weeks back in our sister paper, The Sentinel.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.