Monday marks 200 days until the absolute last date possible for the general election.

It could, of course, be earlier than that. But if Enda Kenny runs it as late as possible, then it will be 200 days tomorrow to polling day.

With the countdown underway, for this week's Sunday Show Shane Coleman and his guests took the opportunity to reflect on what’s likely to happen in that general election.

First up, former government minister and presenter of Newstalk Breakfast Ivan Yates chatted with Shane about their predictions. 

Without the time to run through all 40 constituencies, they took a sample of eight key constituencies, geographically spread, to give a forecast on what might happen when the people have their say:

"At a constituency level... the general trend mirrors the national trend," Ivan observed. "The person topping the poll is the strongest independent. Sinn Féin is not too far off a quota for each seat... Therefore for the other parties, it's actually quite congested."

They started by discussing the Dun Laoghaire constituency. Although the Ceann Comhairle is automatically elected - which would effectively reduce it to a three-seat constituency - Ivan suggested that he "wouldn't rule out that Sean Barrett could retire before the Dáil is up... so it could be a four-seater."

They also looked through Dublin Bay North, Kerry (which is one constituency for the first time), Wexford, Tipperary, Donegal, Cork South Central and Meath East.

As for Shane's prediction for a five party coalition consisting of Fine Gael, Labour, Renua, the Socialist Party and a 'whole gaggle' of independents? Ivan simply said "God help us all".

A number of other experts - Eoghan Harris of The Sunday Independent; Dr Jane Suiter, Political Scientist at DCU; Odran Flynn, Political Analyst; and Sean Donnelly, Political Analyst - also offered their thoughts on what we are likely to see once the ballots are counted.

Eoghan, who said Enda Kenny should call a snap election, believes it will be a Fine Gael government, with the 'rump' of the Labour party and potentially the Social Democrats.

Ivan Yates and Sean Donnelly both reckon it could be a historic Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil coalition, while the others suggest it will be Fine Gael, Labour and perhaps a variety of other parties. Everybody predicted Enda Kenny will be returning as Taoiseach.

We'll find out whether their predictions are right or wrong some time before 8th April 2016...