What issues will each coalition party take credit for in the run-up to the General Election?

Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party will decline to participate in a voting pact in this month's election
What issues will each coalition party take credit for in the run-up to the General Election?

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The three coalition parties will decline to participate in a voting pact in this month's election, each seeking to go it alone in a bid to return for a second term in government.

Sources from Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party have all said, however, that the overall record of the government will be what is sold on the doors over the coming weeks.

"We've worked well together, you can't say otherwise to the public," one TD says, echoing the high-minded pronunciations of party leaders.

Privately and on the doors, however, the attitude is slightly different. If Harry Truman said that it was amazing what could be accomplished if you don't mind who gets the credit, the coalition parties are now in a mindset of "it's amazing what was accomplished, here are the things I would like specific credit for".

But after four years, three months and 29 days, whose fingerprints are most visible on this tripartite agreement? Who will be claiming credit for what?

Housing

When, in June 2020, the 100-page Our Shared Future document which serves as the Programme for Government was signed off by Leo Varadkar, Michéal Martin and Eamon Ryan after 32 days of negotiations, all three parties were keen to claim "wins". 

Of particular focus at the time was housing, one of two key issues identified by voters in the exit poll following the 2020 election. Following negotiations, Fianna Fáil and Green Party negotiators claimed a victory as they received commitments on an ambitious plan for housing that would increase social housing supply by 50,000. 

Up to the middle of 2024, according to Department of Housing figures, 41,586 social homes have been delivered, though yearly targets have been missed and the system has relied heavily on acquisitions, leading to charges that the State has become a "cuckoo fund".

Fianna Fáil, however, will take credit for taking on the issue full stop. It's important to remember that in the run-up to the 2020 election, intense focus was on two ministers: Housing's Eoghan Murphy and Health's Simon Harris. 

The housing crisis was biting its hardest and Mr Murphy had become a totem for government inaction and indifference while a threatened vote of no confidence in Mr Harris had precipitated the entire vote. 

Micheál Martin's Fianna Fáil will take credit for taking on the housing issue full stop.
Micheál Martin's Fianna Fáil will take credit for taking on the housing issue full stop.

Fianna Fáil's parliamentary party members believe the party deserves credit for actively seeking to take on those two briefs at the outset of the Government. "Fine Gael ran a mile from both," is the rather blunt assessment of a senior Fianna Fáil member.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien has been oft-lampooned as a wheeler-dealer type, more style than substance, but his consistent repelling of this charge is to take into account the mere existence of the Housing For All document. 

Anyone who has heard him speak to the media will know it is a favoured line of Mr O'Brien — it is the first fully-funded, ring-fenced housing plan in the history of the state. 

But with home completions since the 2020 election at just over 126,000 to the end of the third quarter of this year, there is no question that it will be some way short of the party's manifesto pledge of 200,000. 

Likewise, a plan to end long-term homelessness was floated in 2020 but the reality is that homelessness is at record levels.

Health

In Health, Stephen Donnelly's rocky start in the early pandemic perhaps overshadowed the fact that he has largely avoided further calamity. 

However, while he has seen progress in tackling waiting lists — October's figures show a 17% reduction in the total number of patients waiting over 12 months since this time last year, and a corresponding reduction of around 27% in the number waiting over 18 months — growing spending and the ongoing crisis at UHL have been problems he has not been able to grapple with.

Education

Fianna Fáil claims some of its biggest wins in Education, where Norma Foley has overseen the roll-out of free school books for all children and the beginning of a major overhaul of the primary curriculum as set out in its manifesto. 

One surprising win the party had in 2020 was the establishment of a standalone department of Further and Higher Education. 

Finance

Fianna Fáil's handling of the public purse — first through Michael McGrath and now Jack Chambers — is something they will lean on, on the doors. 

The message will be that this is not the flaithiúlach party of old — just look at the rainy-day funds.

Childcare

In childcare, both Fine Gael and the Green Party wants to take credit for lowering costs through the National Childcare Scheme. 

Fine Gael points to its establishment of the scheme in 2018, the Greens to its increased funding of it in recent budgets.

The Greens will argue for the credit there given that it was its now-leader Roderic O'Gorman who oversaw the increases as Children's Minister. 

Environment

In truth, the Greens have had an outsized impact on this government, pragmatically committing to getting as much done as possible. 

Having been swept to a party record 12 seats in 2020 on the back of a Green Wave that saw climate put front and centre, it was no surprise that environment took up much of the 32-day negotiating period.

Eamon Ryan's Greens have had an outsized impact on this government. Photo: Damien Storan
Eamon Ryan's Greens have had an outsized impact on this government. Photo: Damien Storan

The deal saw Ireland commit to cutting carbon emissions by 7% a year and the passing of the Climate Act. 

The party also won agreement that the carbon tax will rise to €100 a tonne by 2030, rather than the €80 a tonne favoured by others.

The economy

Fine Gael's focus will be wider, having been in power for 13 years. The party is set to hammer home to the public that it introduced the Hot School Meals Programme and is now expanding it to all primary schools, that it introduced Parent’s Benefit — paid parental leave for each parent in the early years — and expanded it to nine weeks.

But the cornerstone of Fine Gael's selling of its record will be the economy. With a record 2.7 million people now in employment, the party will also seek credit for increases to the minimum wage and statutory sick leave, as well as PAYE tax cuts in recent budgets.

Across the coalition, publicly, there has been four-and-a-half years of insisting that the delivery was what matters, not where the credit went. When Simon Harris dissolves the Dáil this week, that theory will be put to the test.

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