Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has dismissed today's opinion polls, saying they contain wide variations.
Speaking in his Cork South Central constituency this afternoon, Mr Martin said his focus from the outset of the election campaign has not been on opinion polls but on the reception he has been getting on doorsteps and from voters.
He said his message to the people was that Ireland needed a fairer and more decent society, and to look after those who were creating jobs.
He insisted he was still in "listening mode", and he said he was taken aback by Enda Kenny describing people who complain as "whingers" and by a comment from Richard Bruton, who said those who did not intend to vote Fine Gael were not using their brains.
Mr Martin said that was not good enough in the final days of the campaign and described the comments as arrogant.
Enda Kenny has been asked to apologise for describing some Castlebar locals as 'whingers' during a speech yesterdayhttps://t.co/XTDQj8GSRs
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) February 21, 2016
Mr Martin said his mission now is to persuade as many people as possible to vote Fianna Fáil.
He also issued a direct appeal to Fianna Fáil voters who did not vote for his party in 2011.
Mr Martin said he understood why those people had left the party, but he appealed to them to read the Fianna Fáil manifesto and to consider voting for the party again next Friday.
Fianna Fáil launched its policy document aimed at tackling the problems of the capital, primarily housing and crime.
The party wants specialised Garda units and penalties for developers who hoard land.
Dublin Fingal candidate Darragh O'Brien accused Fine Gael of resorting to the politics of fear and smear as he put it, and seeking to divert discussion away from the problems caused by their policies.
Sinn Féin too was focusing on what the party says is an increasingly negative campaign by the government parties.
The party’s Vice President, Martin McGuinness, said Sinn Féin was campaigning on the politics of hope while for Fine Gael it was the politics of fear.
This was the first opportunity for Sinn Féin to be in government North and South, he said.
Elsewhere among the smaller parties, the Social Democrats insisted their poll results showed the electorate was tired of auction politics.
And Renua leader Lucinda Creighton maintained that the quality of democracy was being undermined by a lack of accountability for the top tier of the civil service.
