Time now to make the politicians remember their promises

As the campaign enters its last week, it seems the political parties are finally feeling promising fatigue

As the campaign enters its last week, it seems the political parties are finally feeling promising fatigue. Having said that, there is very little for them left to promise, except perhaps world peace or everlasting life, and some of them have already come close to promising the latter with ambitious and far-reaching health strategies, writes Joe Humphreys

Indeed, a sign of how tired this campaign has become is the parties' almost nerdish obsession with the creation of new government departments.

If there is anything less likely to impress the electorate, it is the promise of a new office to deal with some long-running problem which politicians have avoided tackling for decades.

However, that hasn't stopped Fine Gael pledging a Department of Western Development to address imbalances in between east and west, the Greens a Department of Consumer Affairs to improve food safety checks and Sinn Féin a Department of Children to stamp out child abuse.

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Most depressing of all, however, is Fianna Fáil's promise of - wait for it - a Department of Transport, one of which existed before the present Government decided to rename it Public Enterprise.

This bold label-reversing policy would ensure "the faster, more cost -efficient and more effective implementation" of infrastructural developments, Mr Ahern claimed.

Another indication of promising fatigue is the manner in which commitments have become even more vague and indefinable.

On waste-management, for instance, Fine Gael and the Greens have been allowed to peddle around the dubious promise of "zero waste" without much of a challenge, while Fianna Fáil and the PDs have avoided mentioning the I-word with impunity, even though both their policy documents imply "it" to some degree.

For the PDs, what is promised is the "high-tech treatment of waste to produce clean and safe refuse-derived fuel".

As for Fianna Fáil, it said it would "ensure the effective implementation of our waste-management plans", plans which entail the thermal treatment of municipal waste or, in other words, incineration.

The claim by Labour's Éamon Gilmore that parties have engaged in shameless imitation, or what he called "pledgerism", has a ring of truth about it, although some have occasionally risen above the crowd. Here follows a provisional list of the most noteworthy pledges to date:

Emptiest pledge of the campaign: "In the three weeks ahead, I pledge my party . . . to give the people of Ireland the campaigthey deserve, a campaign of substance not slander, of issues not insults." This from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.

Replace "substance" with "photo opportunities" and "issues" with "evasion", and the conflict-shy Fianna Fáil leader got it just about right.

Most ill-judged pledge of the campaign: The promise by Fine Gael, or rather the party's deputy leader Jim Mitchell, to compensate - to the tune of at least €200 million - taxi-drivers who lost out through liberalisation of the taxi industry.

Mr Mitchell has suddenly gone quiet on the issue and, as for the party, a spokeswoman said it was awaiting the recommendations of the Government's Taxi Hardship Panel before deciding how to proceed. "We are not committing to it [the compensation fund\] and not reneging on it," she told this column.

Daftest pledge of the campaign: Labour's promise of two extra bank holidays to bring us up to the European average of 11 such days-off a year. The idea in itself might be laudable but the suggestion by party leader Ruairí Quinn that it would "restore the balance between work and family life" was an overstatement, to say the least.

Most ambitious pledge of the campaign: A toss-up here between two Fianna Fáil promises: the first, to end hospital waiting lists by 2004, something which the party - if returned to government - might just be able to pretend to achieve, and pretend only, with some creative accountancy.

The second one gets the prize, however: the Taoiseach's promise, in the area of traffic, to "end congestion by the end of the decade" - a move which presumably will put AA Roadwatch out of a job.

Given it has taken more than a decade to get the first Dublin light rail line to construction phase, it is no surprise Mr Ahern last week toned down what he originally described as a "commitment" to a mere "ambition" on transport policy.

Most topical pledge of the campaign: The Green Party's promise, just days after the Taoiseach was found to be travelling at up to 95 m.p.h. on the campaign trail, to enforce a new 30 k.p.h. speed limit in designated residential areas.

Most desperate pledge of the campaign: It must be Fine Gael's "new deal for young people", which contains a variety of pledges including free GP visits for under 18s, a €315 million investment in school sports facilities, and the making of PE "a core school subject".

That the party is already appealing to the next generation of first-time voters is surely a sign of defeat?

No more e-mails please! On Friday, just remember who promised what when you're voting.