Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

Prior to Christmas it was decided that having completed the budgetary process and introduced and enacted the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, a parliamentary schedule for this term, setting out the legislative priorities, would be issued. The Deputy will have a copy of that to hand. Those are the issues we want resolved and dealt with in this term.

Other parts of the programme are at various stages of implementation. Some are advanced, others are half way through and progress is slow on others. These are issues that will be taken up in due course, whatever the situation is later in the year. This may involve a continuation of policy initiatives, their modification or they may be discontinued. That is a matter for a decision in the future. In the meantime, we will produce a report shortly on the state of implementation of the programme for Government, which has been a revised programme since October 2009, in which we will be able to indicate the rate of progress made on a whole range of areas over the past three and a half years.

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