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MICHEÁL MARTIN MARKS his first 100 days as Taoiseach this weekend.
This government, which can’t really be described as new any more, has struggled to gain momentum and was mired from the get-go in controversy over its formation.
The lack of tangible progress to point to is not surprising because the government didn’t set itself any targets to hit in its first 100 days. A shrewd move, one might say.
When the programme for government was published in January, it was pointed out how vague the document was.
There were no pledges to achieve anything specific in the first 100 days of this new government, which was strikingly different from the 2016 document, which contained 13 mentions of actions to be completed in the first 100 days of office.
Without a deadline to light a fire under them, the pace of any change has been slow, to say the least.
So if achievements and wins haven’t dominated the last 100 days, what has?
The speaking rights row and Michael Lowry took up a lot of air time in the earlier days. One of Martin’s first missteps as Taoiseach was thinking that the public weren’t overly concerned about the issue. How wrong he was.
Polls later showed unease from the public over the Tipperary TD’s involvement in government. Even within his own party, Fianna Fáilers remained dumbfounded that Martin was willing to die on the hill of the speaking rights row for Lowry.
The whole debacle resulted in walkouts in the Dáil from the opposition and the appointment of Verona Murphy as Ceann Comhairle, which resulted in her later facing a motion of no confidence.
Martin failed to see that the public could smell something was off, and assertions that there were no back deals done with the Independents are not credible.
No sooner had Martin bedded back into the role as Taoiseach than he faced another challenge. One that Fine Gael’s Enda Kenny as a new Taoiseach also faced. Meeting Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
There was plenty of advice being offered as to how the Taoiseach should manage the visit to the White House. Ultimately, he went with the strategy of having a few points he wanted to raise, and of getting in and getting out without causing any major diplomatic incident.
He largely achieved that, though some critics point to how he could have been more vocal about the issue of Gaza. But with the threat of tariffs looming in March, Martin chose not to rock the boat.
No sooner had Martin vacated the building than the threat of those tariffs started to become a reality. The announcement of the tariffs and the run-up to it has probably been the most challenging time for this government to date.
Amid speculation about immediate job losses, predictions of plummeting corporation tax-take, and huge risk to some of Ireland’s most important sectors such as pharma and tech, it was probably when this government were firing on all cylinders for the first time.
Though the tariff of 10% is not as high as was predicted, it still feels like this government is in assessment mode as to what it all could mean.
Housing is one of the main issues that has dominated the first 100 days of this government.
The shine came off when it was revealed that the promise that 40,000 homes would be delivered by the end of last year, which was repeated ad nauseum to voters during the election campaign, turned out not to be true.
What made it worse was that there were reports that those at the top knew it wouldn’t be achieved, leaving the public feeling like mugs.
What has followed is more exasperation at the housing crisis, as it emerged last month that the state missed its target for the delivery of social homes last year by almost 20%.
There are now major concerns being voiced about this year’s targets, though government figures are keen to point out that new home completions were on the rise for the first quarter of the year. The government has pushed on with measures to regulate short-term lettings such as Airbnb, progressed with the National Planning Framework legislation and the Planning Bill, in fairness.
While the government might point to those above, one serious failing is the numbers in emergency accommodation has increased, yet again.
The first major rift between the coalition partners arrived just before the 100 days was up, with this week’s embarrassing episode over the appointment of the new housing tsar. Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh withdrew his name from consideration after sources stated that Fine Gael blocked his appointment this week.
So what about the next 100 days? The government’s summer legislative programme was published this week and it includes some priorities such as the bill to remove the Triple Lock requirement for overseas Defence Force deployments, facial recognition technology legislation, the law to ban disposable vapes along with the International Protection Bill.
The Housing for All 2.0 plan is also in the works and is due to be published before the summer.
But with no landmark laws or progress on the crucial political issue of the day, housing, the government has little to point to in the way of concrete achievements four months in.
So overall, the first 100 days of this government? A damp squib, let’s be honest.
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