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GE2024Looking BackIF YOU READ the Programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens back in 2020, you’ll see many loosely-worded commitments and pledges to review areas such as public transport, healthcare, policing and the environment.
In fact, the word ‘review’ appears more than 130 times in the 128-page document.
A Programme for Government is a blueprint – setting out to the public the goals of an incoming administration.
Promises to ‘prioritise’, ‘ensure’ and ‘progress’ appear regularly. These pledges have vague goals and are, often, difficult to quantify.
We took a look at the coalition’s performance across a number of key areas over the last Dáil term and compared it to the goals set out in the 2020 Programme for Government.
1. Public Transport
Pledge: “Develop and implement a Sustainable Rural Mobility Plan.”
It was widely accepted that changes and reforms to public transport, particularly in rural communities, were desperately needed.
The National Transport Authority (NTA) developed and implemented the Sustainable Rural Mobility Plan. A blueprint of the scheme was completed by 2021.
It committed to delivering public transport to 70% of those living outside of cities and began after a public engagement phase in 2022.
As of the second quarter of this year, over 120 new local connections – using Local Link bus services primarily – have been introduced, according to the NTA.
25 services were introduced in rural and remote areas this year alone. The plan is on track to be fully implemented by 2025 and has completed almost 5 million journeys.
Pledge: “Ensure a national integrated public transport system with an integrated timetable, one tag-on ticketing system and coordination between bus and rail timetables of all operators.”
The commitment to introduce a nationwide, integrated timetable fell through. It was listed alongside a promise to implement a pre-existing plan to connect all of Ireland’s public transport systems together.
The NTA published a five-year plan in 2019. It commits to having the necessary infrastructure and services in place so that people can, in practice, catch a bus to a train station and vice versa.
There is no mention of an integrated timetable in the document. This would make sure that arrival times match up with departing times between services.
While passengers can get the bus to the train station, the government did not redraft the existing plan or commit, in writing, to making sure that a train would be at the platform when commuters get off the bus.
Pledge: “Increase the social housing stock by more than 50,000, with an emphasis on new builds.”
It was a major goal of the outgoing government to increase social housing supply by 50,000 more homes. As of the second quarter of this year, 44,953 social homes have been delivered since the beginning of 2020.
Though the figures for the final half of this year have yet to be published, it can be accepted that the outgoing coalition are going to meet its goal, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office and Housing For All updates.
However, a Housing Commission report said earlier this year that more needs to be done on social housing, and any new government will need to consider those recommendations.
The Commission said there is a significant shortage of social housing and that it should represent at least 20% of the total housing stock nationwide.
While figures are slowly growing, the Housing Commission also outlined that there is still a housing deficit of roughly 250,000.
Pledge: “Improve the supply and affordability of rental accommodation and the security of tenure for renters.”
The outgoing coalition made amendments to the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 which secured renters their tenancy for an ‘unlimited duration’ after a six-month probationary period. Existing leases reached unlimited duration status on a staggered basis.
The report found that the cost of an average rent is up 43% compared to pre-Covid times – before the existence of the outgoing coalition. The average rent is €1,955 per month as of the third quarter.
Author of the report Ronan Lyons, an economist at Trinity College Dublin, said supply was largely driving the price surges, adding that the pipeline of homes around the country is beginning to dry up.
Pledge: “Prioritise the development of microgeneration, letting people sell excess power back to the grid by June 2021.”
Microgeneration is the generation of electricity from renewable sources, such as solar panels, by households and small businesses.
Under a programme called the Microgeneration Support Scheme (MSS), people whose homes or businesses produce more energy than they need are able to sell it back to their electricity suppliers.
Government may have prioritised the development of microgeneration, but the necessary arrangements were not in place by 2021. In September 2022, thousands of households were still unable to sell excess power back to the grid.
While most of these issues have been resolved, Electric Ireland recently cut rates for people availing of the scheme and the industry has called for expansion in recent days.
Pledge: “Developing major drive to realise the immense potential of Ireland’s offshore renewables.”
The government did publish a major offshore ‘future framework’ document earlier this year.
It set out big targets: 5GW (gigawatts) of offshore wind installed by 2030, rising sharply to 20GW by 2040 and then 37GW by 2050.
While this fulfils the pledge, and is attracting worthwhile investment into Ireland, it is now almost certain that these targets will be missed.
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Why use tax money to bail them out? If they can’t survive on their ownet then go bust.
@John Fagan: Would you let public libraries ‘go bust’ too?
@Brendan O’Brien: libraries serve a purpose.
@Michael o connor: So does a public broadcaster that doesn’t need to make a profit.
@Brendan O’Brien: Indeed, a propaganda wing for the government with sports supplement alongside. I fail to see how, in this day and age, a public broadcaster relying on involuntary donations is necessary.
@Brendan O’Brien: public libraries are not in existence to make profit public libraries don’t charge for services public libraries provide a service to the public for free whilst RTE provides a service at a cost to the public and RTE is there to make profit.
@Brendan O’Brien: @Brendan O’Brien: But RTE head staff only want a massive wage even at the expense of RTE. If they don’t care about RTE but only the wage they get, then they should work for the wages and not on a tax that is looking crazy when you see what happens in other countries. As the TV licence is a rare tax in the world today, why do we have it with paid advertising and extra cash to prop RTE. The problem with RTE is bad financial management, too many on wages they don’t deserve, full stop. I doubt libraries are on the wages of RTE staff.
@John Fagan: sure there’s no accountability they can run it into the ground again sure what’s the worst will happen. Whoever causes it can head off into the sunset with lump sum and pension it’s the job of a lifetime nothing whatsoever to worry about if it goes wrong sod it.
@Brendan O’Brien: @Brendan O’Brien: The libraries do not throw commercials at your face every 2 minutes
@Michael o connor: Agree Agree Agree. Public libraries are more than a building that holds books. In a lot of areas they are a social hub for young and old alike. Students can go and study in peace and quiet , elderly folk use it to meet their pals, they run programmes for the toddlers, they are an information point for local activities and so much more. They are staffed by public servants who don’t have a barter account , who do get expense accounts and who, in the last year or so, have faced extreme harassment verbal and physical from some sections of our great public.
@Don Denar: Neither does RTE. Gross exaggeration to make your point kinda makes your point, well, pointless.
@John Fagan: Why use tax payers money to pay The Lucky Bertie and his cronies Wheelbarrow Pensions.
@John Fagan: Any idea who the latest 400k exit package is for.
@Brendan O’Brien: we are not forced to pay for public libraries twice like are with rte. If it can’t remain open on its own then let it close
@Ger Whelan: And how are they funded? Tax is a forced payment and it’s used to fund everything, the TV license is a tax on an item of luxury and before you head off on a rant a TV isn’t necessary to live.
@Jp Cleary: Guess
It’s time to close them doors
@Adrian Joyce: 100%. And if you pay the TV licence you need your head examined.
@Ted Daly: I’m really enjoying the Euro’s on RTE. Paid for by my tv licence fee. I think €13.33 a month is brilliant value. No, I’m not a troll
@Philip Gallagher: but there’s someone, not a million miles away, that you’re paying for aswell.
@Philip Gallagher: I’m happy you’re enjoying what you paid for. Not sure RTE extorting myself and hundreds of thousands of others for your viewing pleasure is worth it though.
@Philip Gallagher: I’m watching it on bbc and itv for free with 5.1 Dolby digital and far better commentary and punditry. Also no ads on bbc.
Close it down. It’s a joke. Court threats for non payment of the licence fee but zero accountability for the likes of lying Dee Forbes… Pity the rest of us can’t feign sickness to get out of our responsibilities and let’s not even start looking at what kind of pension payments these hacks get. An absolute clusterfu€k of an organisation.
@Greg Power:
So you want to commercialise the news coverage like in the US… How is that working out?
We need to have proper News sources and proper investigative journalism, that is expensive and does yield a profit but it is vital for a functioning democracy
@Jack Dermody: because RTE have always been unbiased, yeah?
@nck: yeah!
@nck: The fact that it doesn’t embody your bias (as you would like it to) doesn’t mean that it’s not unbiased.
@Declan Murphy: have they though? How so?
@Brendan O’Brien: it doesn’t mean that it’s NOT unbiased either ;)
@nck: That is what I said.
@Brendan O’Brien: thought what I meant was obvious, but for clarification:
Whether I agree with what RTE are saying or not is entirely irrelevant to whether they have bias or not. RTE have shown on quite a lot of occasions to be more than happy to take a stance one way or the other on issues as opposed to simply presenting the facts.
@nck: You accidentally said the opposite of what you meant. It happens.
All responsible broadcasters have certain principles (e.g. respect, dignity) and ‘take a stance’ accordingly. I don’t see RTE doing anything other than that. Your claim that it is a government propaganda wing is way off the mark.
@Brendan O’Brien: Well said!
@Greg Power: I’d imagine the pension that they receive is related to their contributions and their employers contributions like everyone else that has a private pension . Many of these employees would be on a standard salary it’s only the “names” that are on a ridiculously high salary but sure it suits the agenda to tar everyone with the same brush. However allocating €50 million for 400 redundancies is crazy, equating to €125000 a head.
@Brendan O’Brien: it really isn’t. “taking a stance” at all is bias. A responsible broadcaster presents the facts and allows their viewers to draw their own stance from it without moralising based on their own “principles”.
@Brendan O’Brien: And if they fail to inform us of certain things that we have a right to know, and they had a duty to?
RTE have always protected certain politicians and political parties.
Which has lead to the continuance of corruption and other misdeeds, rather than rooting it out.
@Greg Power: court threats? No correct me but it’s court summons and jail time -fact your right Dee Forbes and the likes gets/got away unbelievable no accountability this country gets me so mad!
@Brendan O’Brien: the fact that it DOES embody your bias suits you well, so we should just move on, nothing to see here
@Greg Power: Opus Dea Ireland at it again, lets make it all worse and then i’ll feel better. Maybe we could offer our media sytems to the Murdochs and ‘trust’ them to have our best interests.
If the RTE player requires sign in with a TV license number I wonder how much audiences will plummet both from the inconvenience and not having a license.
@Rochelle Hart: probably to start the process charging for certain programs. That’s usually how it starts.
@Rochelle Hart: isn’t this the point. Won’t it give a better indication of who is actually watching and paying?
@Rochelle Hart: If they fix it and drag it into 2024 it could be a good service very useful for sports coverage, the internet in Ireland is like Bratislavan style in the 1980s.
They Reap what they sow. The TV Tax has to go too! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! Subscription Only! YOU want it, YOU pay for it!
@Mick Hanna: Yeah! Privatise everything!
@Nick Vasilakis: sounds good
@Nick Vasilakis: No.
But RTE does not fullfill the function of a Public Service Broadcaster.
As it does not, there is no need for a licence fee.
@Nick Vasilakis: Subscription IS NOT Privatisation!
@nck: it’s already 50% private.
Any company that uses the A word (Agile) generally is anything but…just following the corporate herd with meaningless old clichés
” plunged into crisis after understating the fees of star presenter tubridy ” = caught rotten telling lies whilst sneakily overpaying a greedy already overpayed low talent presenter… I feel sorry for the workers in rte losing their jobs though
Looks like the 400 staff are being made pay for the mistakes and greed of a few . Doesn’t seem fair imo
@Liam Lehane: Ah, you needn’t shed too many tears.
These have been well cossetted over the years.
Cossetted by fees from those much less well off.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: they are on a wage. Nobody is cosseting them
@Liam Lehane: The Irish will only be pleased when the unemployment figures rise. We’re a horrid lot really.
They want to charge people to stream as well as pay for a TV licence..can’t see that working tbh..I’d say RTE can s
ay good bye to themselves..do honestly see o a ps trying to sign in to watchRTE..good luck with that.
And yet they are keeping 2FM, which serves no purpose and just replicates what numerous other commercial stations are doing…
@ciaran lohan: I think that you’ll see that the commercial stations are following RTE 2′s format. Just look at the early morning slots , every station has a couple of presenters who think they’re comedians. Next up a chat show with an opinionated presenter followed by easy afternoon listening rounded off by drivetime.
Some Today BBC Radio 4 presenters paid less than Joe Duffy who’s show is less than half the length? Why should people be expected to pay a licence fee when RTE have ad revenue as well – unlike BBC – and who makes the better programmes???
Rte player gaa go both useless,out on sat to watch derry v mayo kept stopping
@Ciaran Goggins: agree with the player but find gaago runs very well for me . Dod have any stops watching the match
@Ciaran Goggins: Don’t know about GAAGo, but I have to say, I find the RTE Player way better than it was, particularly in the last 6 months or so, I actually use it more than I ever did, no buffering, only annoying thing is not being able to skip adverts, but I reckon they’ll never allow that. In general, if a streaming service is not working properly, it is almost always down to poor broadband signal.
Having to sign in to stream is definitely a precursor to whatever model is going to replace the TV licence.
Let’s hope the “right” people leave as part of the redundancy program and that the best people remain with RTE. Always difficult to manage these programs, particularly when they are voluntary. Good luck to all. The working atmosphere at RTE must be pretty horrendous these days
Take some of the money back from the overpaid parasites working there
@Marc Power: dee forbes in still in early stages of full recovery from the desperate ordeal she endured on the hefty lump sum and pension.
who needs RTE when you have Netflix, and online news portals.
There is nothing RTE can offer.
Nice earner if you happen to have long service and are 60+. Rte just keeps giving, woohoo.
Is this a joke or what? A 20 million bailout, enough is enough it’s not fit for purpose. It’s great the way the public isn’t asked whether they’d agree with the bailout, not a hope. I hope dee forbes is fully de-stressed after the ordeal and comfortable on the lump sum and pension while people struggling week to week have to fund this crap. What a joke this country is becoming,what’s to say they won’t run it into the ground again with overspends and garbage, there’s no accountability at all.
explains why presenters are jumping ship that or they have been pushed. A Right Titanic Exit!
Sign in to watch the player ? Does this mean we don’t have to watch 5 minutes of adverts anymore ?
A fcuking million then for the report when the dog’s on the street knew the problem.
@Malachy Cox: ah no,we like to be thorough in solidarity and transparency as mehole does say ‘ lessons learned’
Didn’t they try this already
Yikes he’s getting serious!
Well isn’t that what people want. Total revamp of RTE.?
@John Nolan: Nah!
People want RTE to stand on its own feet. To go to a subscription service.
If it cannot, then let it go.
We are well rid of this mouthpiece for the government of the day, and their staff who believe we were put on this Earth to keep them in the manner to which they have become accustomed.
@John Nolan: would you describe this as a total revamp?
Why on earth don’t they get more money from advertising? For example, Morning Ireland is the most listened to radio programme, why isn’t their a sponsor for this? If you listen closely to the ads they do have, a considerable amount of them are promos advertising other RTE shows, ads for appeals/charities, ads with RTE supporting the Arts. None of these bring in any money. Yet RTE take the easy option of getting us to pay a high TV license and bailouts from the Government (us again). And it goes without saying that the top “stars” are grossly overpaid. Confidence in RTE has taken a massive hit lately, they need major changes to get that back.
@Joseph Fitzgibbon: Much sooner listen to RTE radio as it is than that Newstalk and it’s constant promoting of its non existent so called cash machine every 15 minutes not to mention most of their unbearable presenters.
@Leonard Barry: I have to agree with you 100% on this cash machine. It’s highly irresponsible and they also have a lot of sports programmes/segments sponsored by betting companies.
From my perspective I don’t think the service is worth paying. I’m sure they will continue to push irrelevant mo ro nic ads as well.
Public Broadcasting needs protecting. Good to see improvements on the way.
@Jack Hayes: For who?
@Jack Hayes: why?
Fair city, seven days a week. Yup I said
Move it out to ballymount!
They’re going to outsource the shows so the people working on the shows can get paid more than the caps. :/
This workaround should be closed.
Won’t change the aloof attitudes of those at the top table.
All the talk about the need for Public Service Broadcasting to counter Misinformation, when the Public Service Broadcaster itself Misinformed & Misled the Licence Fee Holders & Taxpayers on salaries & the corrupt Financial Irregularities, along with the myriad of other abuses from Exit packages to Car Allowances. Nobody has been held accountable, nobody arrested, no Garda or Revenue raids, no fraud investigation, still no answers on many issues, just mega Pension payouts, mega Exit Packages with Non Disclosure Agreements, NOTHING HAS CHANGED ! Bakhurst is not delivering any major changes & we still don’t know the identity or details of the €400K Exit Package he was arranging under his watch.
RTE should be sold off to the private market, no more money from the State.
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