Aisle2c->The reason for the prices going up so close to the date is because leisure users rarely book a flight that's leaving in a few days time, while business users do it quite frequently. And as business users will usually pay a higher price, it's extracting the most money from them. Of course, it's dubious how many business users will use ORK-ALC, but that's the reason they go up.
As regards the politics. Fianna Fail had three vulnerable seats in the Cork region (SC, SW and NW). They lost two of them on a day that their vote held up nationally. Also the seat in North Central, which was safe has moved into the vulnerable list. The airport debt was a factor in their performance in the Cork region.