THE GOVERNMENT’S revised programme for government has given a commitment not to introduce university fees or increase pupil-teacher ratio numbers, to begin recruiting 500 teachers immediately and to create 120,000 “green collar” jobs over the next few years.
The programme also contains an eye-catching commitment to look at the feasiblity of redeveloping the GPO on O’Connell Street as the new Abbey Theatre in time for the centenary of the Easter Rising in 2016.
In another major concession to the arts, the decision to scrap the Irish Film Board will also be reversed.
Welcoming the agreement, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said last night that it “reflected a fair and appropriate response to meet the economic realities facing the State”.
In another major departure, the programme will also contain a commitment to ban corporate donations. This was a key demand of the Green Party. The new system of vouched expenses for TDs and Senators has also been formally approved in the document.
Among the other key elements of the document are a commitment to restore the grant assistance for school books, which was withdrawn in September 2008. The recruitment of 500 teachers will also have the effect of reducing class sizes over the next three years. It was confirmed last night that should the programme be approved at the Green Party conference today, recruitment of the teachers will begin immediately.
The commitment not to introduce third level fees will also be seen as an important breakthrough for the junior Coalition partners. Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe signalled earlier this year that he was considering the introduction of some form of fee structure for the country’s universities and institutes of technology.
It is also understood that the Greens have won some far-reaching concessions on electoral reform. The Electoral Commission will be asked within the next year to advise if the number of TDs in Dáil Eireann, currently 166, is too high. It will also be asked to review the voting age, which is currently 18.
The programme, when printed this morning, will run to between 40 to 50 pages and contain approximately 200 recommendations. However, given the intensive nature of the discussion that ran into late yesterday evening, no authoritative confirmation of the number of recommendations had been made.
Copies of the document will be presented to an estimated 800 members of the Green Party ahead of their crucial debates on the revised programme, as well as on Nama, today.
Those close to the process said last night that the major sticking points were education and electoral reform. The Greens’ stance on education was partly due to the hardline stance adopted by the Greens’ Dublin Mid West TD Paul Gogarty, who insisted that the programme protect the education sector.
A breakthrough on the education aspects was made between 6.30pm and 7pm. The final negotiations on electoral reform concluded at 8.20pm when Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Green Party leader John Gormley signed off on the document.
Both parties have agreed that the smart and green economies will form the cornerstone of economic policy over the next years. In addition to the promise of 120,000 new jobs in the green and smart tech sectors, both parties agreed that the €500 million innovation fund will have a clearly defined timeline.
The fund will now become available to tender within the next three months, in January 2010, according to those close to the process.
There will also be major reforms of local government. In addition to increased powers for mayors, the document will also propose setting up a new regional structure for local government, in what is said to be the most significant reform of city and county councils in over 100 years.
Mr Cowen said: “The Programme sets out the Government partners’ plans for Ireland’s development for the remainder of the Governments term in office up to 20012 and is designed to act as a blueprint to meet the challenges we now face.”
Green Party leader and Environment Minister John Gormley said: “The Programme will re-direct the work of government to better tackle economic recession and address the serious environmental challenges ahead. It will help protect and create jobs while also aiming to restore public confidence in politics. It will also help government do more with less resources while also protecting the most vulnerable in our society.”