Voter apathy is widespread in the European and local elections. While the parties and candidates are officially saying they are getting a positive response on the doorsteps, they are privately conceding that the elections are a turn-off for many voters. A turnout of below 50 per cent is predicted.
There is widespread ignorance of the detail of the constitutional referendum putting local government on a statutory basis and providing for elections every five years.
Despite media coverage and extensive advertising by the Referendum Commission, canvassers say many voters are unaware that the referendum is being held on the same day as the elections.
Lack of interest among the State's half a million voters under 25 is particularly acute. A National Youth Council of Ireland poll has found that almost half of them might not vote and that 14 per cent have not even registered.
A report compiled last year by the Referendum Commission, based on a study of referendums on the Belfast Agreement and the Amsterdam Treaty, showed that only 38 per cent of the 18-24 age group had voted.
This compares with a turnout of 68 per cent of those over the age of 40 and 75 per cent in the 55-64 age group. Politicians are doubtful that the turnout among the older age groups will be as large for next Friday's elections. The reasons put forward for the apathy vary from disillusionment with politics because of a succession of scandals and controversies, to the absence of major national issues and a complacency generated by the economic boom.
Politicians also say the cross-party consensus on the economy and the fact that the so-called liberal agenda is completed means that there are no divisive issues to generate interest among voters. Ireland's possible membership of Partnership for Peace (PfP) was expected to create controversy but it is not an issue voters are raising to any significant extent with candidates on the doorsteps.
If there is still anger among the PAYE sector about high tax rates, it remains unspoken, while rural canvassers say the expected backlash from the farmers has not materialised because many of them are happy with the renegotiation of the Common Agricultural Policy.
"We will have to announce something unpopular to get people out," the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, joked at last Wednesday's Fianna Fail parliamentary party meeting, as deputies and senators spoke of their frustration in failing to galvanise the electorate.
Mr Proinsias De Rossa, a Labour candidate in Dublin in the European elections, has described the mood among voters as "a plague on all your houses. We are not going out to vote."
A Fianna Fail TD canvassing in the European elections in Connacht-Ulster said: "In 25 years of seeking voters, I have never encountered a similar mood. It is strange, difficult to define. Many people are well-mannered and pleasant, but it is simply a device to get rid of you as quickly as possible. Unless there is a local issue they want to raise with the local authority candidates, they resent you ringing their doorbell."
A Dublin European election candidate, canvassing morning and evening commuters in DART stations, has found the highest level of apathy among young urban professional couples. "They are preoccupied and stressed and have no interest in talking to you. Sometimes they are downright rude."
Fianna Fail, boosted by its 51 per cent rating in last Saturday's opinion poll in The Irish Times, denies Opposition claims there is a perceptible backlash against the party because of the revelations in the Moriarty and Flood tribunals and Ms Terry Keane's disclosure of her 27-year relationship with Mr Charles Haughey.
A rural Fianna Fail TD said, however, that the revelations relating to Mr Haughey's financial affairs and his private life have devastated older members of the party who supported him during leadership heaves in the 1980s.
While his relationship with Ms Keane was the subject of gossip in Dublin media and political circles for several years, many of the party's rural activists had no knowledge of it, he said.
"People in the 60-plus age group, with a traditional view of life, are very hurt and disappointed. While some of them have stopped coming to cumann meetings, I think they can be relied on to vote for the party."
A group of Fianna Fail canvassers in Dublin suggested yesterday that Mr Haughey would do the party and himself a great deal of good if he formally apologised to the Irish people. Asked to comment, a Fianna Fail source who knows Mr Haughey for many years said: "An apology from Charlie? You must be joking. Not a hope."
