THE GOVERNMENT has said it has made a “solid start” in tackling the State’s problems in its first annual progress report.
But Opposition parties have been quick to dismiss the exercise as “airbrushing history” and “propaganda”.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore yesterday published the report on the implementation of the programme for government during the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition’s first 12 months in office.
The 45-page report listed 167 policy commitments and claimed that more than 150 had been delivered or had been substantially progressed. It accepted that about a dozen commitments failed or were not achieved but claimed big successes on debt reduction, banking and restoring stability.
There were expectations that a “report card” on individual Ministers would be published. Mr Kenny first raised this prospect on the Late Late Show in May 2011, and several times promised to sack Ministers who underperformed. But in recent days Government officials have said his evaluation of Ministers was not intended as a public exercise.
“It’s not itemised in respect of any individual Ministers. I did say that I would sit down with them individually. I completed that task several weeks ago,” said Mr Kenny.
Both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste denied that the report was a public relations exercise or that it gave a rosy assessment.
Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said it was an “attempt at airbrushing all of its election commitments from history”.
Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said the real measure of Government achievement was the long line of people queuing at jobs fairs this week. “This report is a propaganda exercise,” she said.