Politics has to be found guilty on all counts

FOR all the promises that have been made in the course of the election campaign, it has been almost as remarkable for what has not been promised. Considering that whoever comes to power after Friday will have a uniquely favourable economic prospect, it is striking that there has been so little real ambition. In a campaign dominated by tax, crime, single mothers and public-sector job cuts, there has been no real debate on many critical issues. It is worth recalling some of the issues that have been conspicuous by their absence.

1. Europe: Even if it is delayed beyond 1999, the single European currency will almost certainly come into effect during the lifetime of the next Dail. It will create serious uncertainties for the Irish economy, especially if Britain stays out. Yet it has featured in the campaign only in a negative way, with Fine Gael attempting to imply that the Progressive Democrats' lack of a clear commitment to the single currency could lead to rises in interest rates.

Bertie Ahern did try to raise the issue yesterday almost certainly too late to have any impact on the campaign. On questions like whether Ireland should push for postponement, or how we should react if Britain stays out, voters have been given almost no sense of where the major parties stand.

Equally, there are fundamental differences between the parties (and within both proposed coalitions) on the issue of neutrality and Ireland's place in evolving European security issues. But none has been argued over.

2. Poverty: Just last April, the Conference of Religious in Ireland published a detailed, coherent and fully-costed proposal for a basic income system which would combine tax and social welfare in an attempt to eliminate poverty. No one is obliged to agree with such a proposal, of course, but it is reasonable to expect that every party running for election would at least spell out its response.

In the campaign, however, only the Green Party (which supports the idea) has come out clearly on the issue. Everyone else is promising merely to study it, with Labour promising a Green Paper.

3. Drugs: Most of the parties have made commitments broadly in line with the Task Force reports produced by Pat Rabbitte. But the wider debate on, for instance, decriminalising cannabis use, has been left to a very small number of Independents. Considering that the Merchant's Quay project in Dublin is still seeing an average of 50 new addicts every month, and that the drugs problem has a huge impact on crime, the failure of the campaign to produce any serious discussion of drugs policy is remarkable.

4. Adult and second-chance education: It is widely accepted that a relatively small investment in adult education could play a very significant role in bridging the gap between the unskilled and the tiger economy. The adult literacy and community education budgets currently stand at a mere £2 million annually. Even a doubling of that sum could have a real long-term effect. Yet only Democratic Left has made a specific promise to do so.

5. Northern Ireland: All parties are, of course, in favour of peace. Yet the only issue on which there has been anything like a policy discussion is that of when and how the next government should meet Sinn Fein. And even that, as was clear from the Harney-Spring television debate, has resolved itself into a broad consensus.

If there is an IRA ceasefire, however, the next government will be taking part in arguably the most important negotiations for Ireland since the Anglo-Irish Treaty. It is not unreasonable to expect some sense of what perspective the different parties might bring to such talks to emerge in the course of the campaign. Instead, there has been little on offer except vague generalities.

6. Long-term unemployment: Democratic Left at least opened its campaign with a detailed document on the reality that there are still 150,000 people classified as long-term unemployed. It, like every other attempt to discuss the issue, was almost immediately overtaken by discussion of taxation policy. All parties recognise in their manifestoes that economic growth alone will not solve the problem, since many of the long-term unemployed do not have the skills that would allow them to take the kind of job that is being created.

But the failure of either of the potential coalitions to produce an agreed, costed and structured programme for getting such people into the workforce, suggests that the priorities of the incoming government will not be substantially different from those of a campaign in which almost everyone has been appealing to the beneficiaries of the boom.

If politics has been on trial in this campaign, the absence of serious debate on these issues suggests that the verdict must be guilty.