The buzz of electoral preparation is in the air as parties in government and opposition bring their organisations and programmes into better fighting trim. This week the principal focus has been on the Labour Party. After a disastrous showing in the two recent by elections, it has announced the appointment of a political director, Mr Fergus Finlay, whose job will be to prepare for the election in co open with the party organisation and to forge close liasion between Ministers, TDs and senators. The fact that Mr Finlay is leaving his post in Foreign Affairs at this critical juncture to take up the new appointment, underlines how nerves have begun to fray within the party about their electoral prospects. But his appointment should provide a measure of reassurance. Mr. Finlay may have become something of a bete noire for Fianna Fail, but he has few peers as an political strategist.
The party leader, Mr Spring, has identified November, 1997, as the optimal date for an election. He will not say at this stage whether Labour will go into it on the basis of a pact with its current coalition partners, Fine Gael and Democratic Left; he has confined himself to the statement that their relations will be governed by mutual respect. This is no doubt prudent; premature commitment is pointless when the exercise of power in government provides its own evidence of political achievement and the capacity to work together.
Labour's task in advance of the election is to get its message across to the public in a way that it has clearly tailed to do in the recent past. Allegations about an alleged "media bias" are only part of the story: in many respects, Labour has only itself to blame for its communications failure.
Labour ministers have many achievements in office but the party has been slow to claim them. The party is entitled to its share of the credit for the current economic well being and for the dramatic increase in the number of new jobs but it has been bashful about drawing attention to its own particular input in the Coalition Government.
That said, Labour can make little progress unless it learns from its mistakes. There is a strong public perception, much of it well grounded, that Labour has become complacent - even arrogant in the exercise of power. The contrast between Labour's high moral tone in opposition and some of its behaviour in government has been striking notably in the fundraising controversies surrounding Eithne Fitzgerald and Michael D. Higgins. At the very least, it is clear that the party needs to re-examine its behaviour and ethos in office.
Labour also needs to stake out much clearer policy positions on issues that affect the daily lives of their supporters, especially on crime and the drug problem. The party has been only lukewarm in its support for Mrs Nora Owen's anti drugs package and Labour ministers have been slow to articulate their own preferred options. Taxation policy could also be problematic. The concentration by Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats on the Residential Property Tax presents difficulties for the party because of Labour's close identification with this tax in the public mind. Clearly, this issue Will lose Labour valuable support among volatile Dublin middle class voters unless it convinces its partners to introduce an alternative tax which could be used to finance a reformed system of local government.