TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY is to assess the performance of individual cabinet ministers by writing up report cards on their progress concerning tasks and targets.

Kenny will meet with ministers individually in the New Year to discuss their portfolio priorities, after which he will publish his assessments of them publicly, reports the Irish Times. It is expected that a report on each minister will be published by the end of March.

The assessments will outline exactly what ministers have done to date and also what they will need to achieve by the end of the year. A department is to be set up in the Department of Taoiseach - at no extra cost – in order to compile the reports, he said.

Speaking at a Christmas briefing in Government Buildings, Kenny said: “We’re not here to mess around,” reports the Irish Examiner.

He said that, with the country now experiencing unemployment of 14.5 per cent and with almost 450,000 people signing on to the dole, job creation was the Government’s first priority.