PROMISES PROMISES: It worked for Tony Blair, it worked for Gerhard Schröder, but will it work for Ruairí Quinn? His - and Irish politics - first pre-election pledge card was unveiled in the past fortnight, and the Labour leader will be hoping it produces similar results for him as for his left-ish counterparts in Britain and Germany, writes Joe Humphreys
Mr Quinn's handy pocket-sized card, in fact, bears a canny resemblance to that used by Mr Blair in the British general election last May. It is red and white; it features a photograph of the great man himself above the rose emblem, and it even addresses the same issues of housing, education and healthcare.
Ireland's Labour leader has gone one better, however, by adding a natty personal signature to the card and making six pledges compared to Mr Blair's five.
They include the provision of free GP healthcare for all, the index-linking of welfare payments to wage increases rather than inflation and an end to means-testing of the carers allowance.
Delivering the pledges will cost more than more than €1.8 billion , excluding a doubling of expenditure on housing and a separate €13 billion investment in health care over 10 years.
"They are definitively more Berlin than Boston," said Mr Quinn, and in doing so, he hinted that Labour would be going after the PDs and their pro-Massachusetts leader, Mary Harney, rather than any other party in the run up to the election. And that's hardly surprising since the rest remain potential coalition partners.
What Ruairí Quinn said: "All my political life, I have been told that my ideas are lovely but that the country cannot afford them. That lie doesn't hold any more. We are now the eighth-richest country in the world."
What Fine Gael (an unnamed party source) said: "Ruairí Quinn was one of the most conservative and prudent ministers of finance in the history of the State. Promises will always be conditional on proper management of the economy."
Coalition promise of the fortnight: While we're on the subject of the formation of the next government, the Labour Party leader has refused to follow his party colleague, Pat Rabbitte, who pledged not to sit in a Fianna Fáil-led coalition.
Someone more willing to nail his colours to the mast, however, is the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, who late last month said he was opposed to Fianna Fáil forming a coalition government with Sinn Féin.
Proving more tactful than the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, who ruled out a coalition with Sinn Féin because of its association with an "illegal private army", Mr Cowen said it was "a question of synergy . . . Sinn Féin policies are not in line with ours."
Going soft on crime: It may have proved a nifty vote-grabber for the Minister for Justice at the last general election, but the largely vacuous concept of "zero tolerance" policing has since fallen out of favour. At least, that's judging from the language of the Opposition which is now calling for a more touchy-feely force, a force willing to sit down and have a cup of tea with the community.
Fine Gael has developed a "Safer Homes, Safer Streets" policy programme, which the party's justice spokesman, Mr Alan Shatter, explained "will put the emphasis on community policing, community consultation and community policing priorities".
Labour, meanwhile, is championing the establishment of county policing liaison committees to create a "partnership approach to fighting crime". The party is also proposing the establishment of an independent Garda authority and a Garda ombudsman in response to recent scandals in the force.
It might be described as a sort of "tough on crime - tough on the solvers of crime" policy.
Cause of the fortnight: Just how many votes are there in sport? Quite a few, one suspects, given the recent attention it has commanded from the Government, what with a fresh tax break from sports stars and the proposed development of a national stadium.
Not wanting to miss out on the act, Fine Gael has promised each county €40 million for sports and community facilities, and party leader Mr Michael Noonan said that in government, it would negotiate with the IRFU "with a view to providing grant aid to transform Lansdowne Road into a stadium of international standard".
Labour, meanwhile, has promised to give "equal priority" to investment at local level as to stadium expenditure.
On the specific issue of the so-called "Bertie Bowl", Mr Noonan has promised to scrap it bar any difficulties with contracts, Ms Harney has said she couldn't see it happening "at this time", while Mr Ahern remains, as ever, gung-ho.
For a famously cautious politician, this is baffling, given the damage the issue could do to Fianna Fáil in the election. Is the Taoiseach not aware that while the country's soccer stars might want Stadium Ireland, most of them aren't eligible to vote?
What Mr Ahern said: "I think any future Irish government, regardless of whether I am in it or not, will complete a stadium campus in this country. I don't think anybody would dare not, frankly."
What Ms Harney said: "I don't think the kind of sums mentioned . . . are affordable."
Lost cause of the fortnight: Fine Gael has tried to placate those militant taxi drivers with a promise of compensation for the liberalisation of their market. Two months ago, the party pledged an initial fund of €25 million (£20 million) pay for devalued plates. Last week, the Fine Gael fund rose to €100 million and later €200 million. But are the taxi unions happy? You gotta' be kidding. They want at least double the largest figure, and with an estimated 21,000 "taxi family" votes in Dublin alone, they reckon they can get it.
Best-timed pledge of the fortnight: In the same week Liam Lawlor was sent to jail for non-co-operation with the Flood tribunal, a debut Fine Gael candidate in Dublin South East made the establishment of a permanent "anti-corruption commission" with High Court powers a central platform in his election manifesto.
Another case of political opportunism? In fairness, the candidate in question was Colm Mac Eochaidh, the Dublin barrister whose offer, with an associate, to pay £10,000 for information on rezoning corruption led to the founding of the tribunal itself.
Keep us posted with details of election promises from your area, including (crucially) where and when they were made. Promises, Promises, which will appear occasionally on Saturdays between now and polling day, may be e-mailed at: promises@irish-times.ie