Energy, it seems is the mot du jour, with 'The Challenge for the Future' chosen as the headline under which guest of honour, Dr Dieter Helm, the British PM Tony Blair's energy adviser, will speak.

Presumably, unlike Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and foreign affairs minister Dermot Ahern will not go for the nuclear option, for fear of nuking any electoral hopes.

The more likely outcome will be to listen politely to the good Dr Helm, fellow in economics at New College in Oxford and promoter of imaginative energy solutions, and then do as they did before: waffle through on a policy based on the non-policy of burning fossil fuels, exceeding our Kyoto limits on carbon emissions and aimlessly coping with rising gas and oil prices.

With every move being analysed in terms of electoral success or failure, the imperative for the government at the moment is to be seen at least to seem to be doing something.

Which is why we've had a rake of announcements over the summer about everything from new consumer legislation to the approval of the sell-off of Aer Lingus and . . .

finally . . . following a protracted PD/Fianna Fail row over public vs private control, a second terminal for Dublin airport.

Think of a problem, particularly one that involves infrastructural planning or a radical confrontation of outdated work practices, and you could almost guarantee that government action will have been too little and too late. Whether or not voters will believe another "a lot done, more to do" slogan after 10 years instead of the five of last time round remains to be seen.

Even full suspension of disbelief suffers fatigue when, after so many promises, GPs try not to send patients to hospital because A&E is so dysfunctional, youngsters going back to school are still in substandard accommodation, the social and affordable housing policy is in shreds, crime . . . and garda behaviour . . . are causing widespread concern and services for vulnerable groups from the elderly to the intellectually and physically disabled leave a lot to be desired.

Despite all this, the government can argue perfectly reasonably that we have never had it so good and come next May, finance minister Brian Cowen will certainly have the funds to entice voters to re-elect Fianna Fail and the PDs back to government.

It can also argue that its pro-business approach has been the lifeblood of our general economic and social good fortune. After all, increased personal wealth has been the mass Polyfilla which has covered the widening cracks in our public services, enabling families to pay out of their own pockets for the services that citizens of other EU countries take for granted.

It takes strong policies to persuade voters away from the politics of the goodybag, which makes it all the more important that the opposition parties come up with ideas that offer clear alternatives.

Affluence tends to bring both consensus and apathy, so if the coming election is to (a) attract voters in any numbers, and particularly young voters, and (b) generate real debate about our future, post-property boom, then we need some fresh ideas.

It's what the PDs did all those years ago and it's the sort of radical revisionism that we are still not seeing enough of from Labour and Fine Gael.

At the moment, ending compulsory Irish in the Leaving Cert and segregating drunk people in A&Es are the only issues that have generated any passionate debate. Voters are entitled to real choice.