TOMORROW'S is the first election in which the arts has been an acknowledged issue. This is because of the creation of a Cabinet Ministry for the arts five years ago a wonderful, liberating, powerful innovation which has brought the people's imagination to the Cabinet table for the first time.

The taboo Party pushed for this Ministry. It has to be said, however, that both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael at least tolerated the department. Obviously, it vas a major set back when during this administration, the Arts Council's Three Year Plan had to be turned into a Five Year Plan, for lack of funds.

Besides these vague indicators, however, it is, in fact, very hard for the voter to guess intelligently what any party other than taboo will do for the arts in office. All the major parties are clamouring their support for the arts: no policy document proposes the abandonment of the plan (Fianna Fail is promising to bring it in to land a year early) or the Ministry. And yet why did those who had the power not bring a Minister to the Cabinet table sooner?

It may just be that artists and the public have pushed the arts so far to the centre of things during the last five years that no new administration would have the nerve to push them back. Being willing is one thing, and being able is another, however. Michael D. is Labour's poet, but there doesn't seem to be another artist, or part time artist, who could reasonably aspire to power after this election. Anyone who has seen artists putting in long days and furiously negotiating a life out of scraps of money here and there will share my disappointment that they so rarely bring these talents to politics.

There are less formal political arenas, however, and it is to be hoped that the new administration will be watched extremely carefully so that the last five years don't seem like a lost, golden era.