With the adjournment of the Dáil for the summer recess on Thursday, political life downshifts a gear or two until September. Contrary to the notion of politicians enjoying unjustifiably long holidays, most will take a couple of weeks off in August – and the weeks before and after them will not be idle. There are another two Cabinet meetings scheduled before the end of the month, while next week’s Summer Economic Statement is one of the most important economic –and therefore political – documents of the year, setting out the size and scope of the October budget.
The Government has the additional matter of EU presidency business: next week there will be meetings of innovation ministers and then climate/environment ministers in Dublin Castle, while the following week sees a major interparliamentary conference on agriculture in Dublin, while EU agriculture ministers gather in Cork.
Nonetheless, the Dáil recess offers an opportunity to draw breath – and to consider the political developments in the first half of the year, and the performance of the Government.
The most important thing that has happened is that the strong performance of the economy and the inflow of huge resources to the Exchequer from corporation tax has continued. The Government should do more to limit its overreliance on one source of revenue, but the public finances remain sufficiently healthy that it can continue to apply vast resources to address the social needs and infrastructure deficits. Whether those resources are efficiently and wisely applied is another matter. But imagine trying to govern without them.
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Progress in addressing the country’s problems remains frustratingly slow. After several controversial legislative changes, there are signs that housing supply is ticking up. But too slowly. It may be too early to judge this Government’s performance on housing. But it is not too early to say reaching the target of 300,000 new units in the lifetime of the administration seems far-fetched.
Action on childcare is promised in the October budget, as is a package on the cost of disabilities. Yet again, the introduction of a second, targeted child benefit payment to address the ongoing scandal of child poverty, has been kicked to touch. It is obviously not a priority. There have been promising signs that efforts to speed up infrastructure improvements will bear fruit. But like an awful lot of things the Government says it is trying to do, it could all happen more quickly.
Politically, the parties of the Government are in reasonable shape. Fine Gael’s poll numbers have steadied, while the party scored a morale-boosting byelection victory. In Fianna Fail, the periodic leadership speculation has abated, for now anyway. The great challenge for the Government remains, as ever, to accelerate on delivery.
