Annual progress report ignores Coalition failures

The Government's claim that it has delivered, or has made significant progress, on 93 per cent of its promises is not borne out by the record. Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Joan Burton yesterday presented their own progress reports on the two joint programmes agreed between Fine Gael and Labour: the Programme for Government in 2011 and the (more modest) Statement of Government Priorities published in July 2014 when Burton became leader of her party.

Kenny concentrated on the big-ticket success, that of economic recovery. He said this was based on a strategy based on jobs, exports and industry. Burton referred to the members of the troika walking from the Merrion Hotel to Government Buildings as if they owned it. There is no reference in the annual report to any failures.

The Government did succeed on many headings, including the economy; the recapitalisation of banking; the setting up of two pillar banks; bankruptcy; the jobs “fund”; the lengthening of the term for repayment of the sums on the promissory notes and some aspects of political reform.

One of its major failures however was in its attempt to “burn” senior bank bondholders. The Programme for Government had aimed to wind down Nama immediately. The Coalition reversed the policy completely and has enlarged its role.

There were other early failures. The Government abandoned plans to exempt from VAT companies that exported more than 90 per cent of output. The target of ending upward-only rent reviews also came a cropper, as did a single business tax for micro-enterprise.

The Government promised a “pay as you save” scheme for home insulation that would cover a million homes by 2020. The funding never materialised. The promised national development plan for 2012 to 2019 never appeared, although a new capital programme was unveiled in the autumn of 2015.

A promise to ensure wealthy tax exiles made a fair contribution to the exchequer bellyflopped. The domicile levy resulted in only 10 people paying the €200,000 levy. Minister for Finance Michael Noonan was not a fan and did nothing to push it.

There were some successes in promises to set up a constitutional convention, reduce the number of committees and introduce reforms such as a wider Freedom of Information Act, a lobbyists register, an independent policing authority and whistle-blowers legislation. Some were not sufficiently robust, though, when in operation.

Dáil reform was a disappointment. The Coalition failed to reach its goal of a 50 per cent increase in Dáil sitting days (it increased from 101 in 2010 to 123 days a year in this term). The guillotines remain (although fewer in number lately) and other goals such as a committee week, topical issues and the Friday sittings were either not achieved or were underachievers.

The so-called “quango cull” sounded great but cutting the number of State bodies was problematic from day one and did not really happen. Indeed, in recent years almost as many new quangos have been created as were cut.

The biggest failures have been in health and housing. Universal health insurance is unlikely to happen. The project to provide universal primary GP care is only partly achieved. Plans to reduce waiting lists have also been a patent and damaging failure.

Homelessness and housing are other problem areas. The goal to end long-term homelessness by 2016 is still years off. Housing continues to be a headache issue for the Government after five years in office.

Another full term has passed with no judicial council – this has been on the agendas of governments for two decades now. Progress on the 20-year strategy for Irish has also been depressingly minimal after five years.

The far more modest statement of priorities was more realistic, given the time frame, and has largely delivered.