Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 8: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28212/06]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 9: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress in the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government, particularly as it affects his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28320/06]

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 10: To ask the Taoiseach when the annual report on progress in the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28462/06]

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Question 11: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the progress to date in implementing An Agreed Programme for Government. [29221/06]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 12: To ask the Taoiseach if he will report on the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30672/06]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 13: To ask the Taoiseach to report on the implementation to date of An Agreed Programme for Government; the reason no progress report on the implementation was published in summer 2006, as had been the practice in previous years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30878/06]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 8 to 13, inclusive, together.

Progress on the implementation of the Government programme is kept constantly under review. Deputies will be aware that for every full year that Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats have been in government, we have published an annual progress report which sets out the progress to date in implementing every commitment contained within the programme for Government. The last edition of the Government progress report was published in the summer of 2005. It is our intention to publish a further report in early 2007.

It is the responsibility of each individual Minister to ensure that the commitments in the programme that fall within his or her particular portfolio are fully implemented. The Department of the Taoiseach derives its mandate from my role as head of Government. As such, it is involved to some degree in virtually all aspects of the work of Government. It provides support to me as Taoiseach and to the Government through the Government secretariat, the Cabinet committee system and through its involvement in key policy areas and initiatives.

The current key strategic priorities of the Department are set out in its strategy statement. They include Northern Ireland, EU and international affairs, economic and social policy, social partnership, public service modernisation and the information society and e-government. I and the Ministers of State in my Department answer questions in the House on these issues. In all its work, my Department works closely with other Departments and offices. Individual Ministers are of course answerable to the House in respect of their own specific areas of responsibility.

The key areas for which my Department is responsible in terms of An Agreed Programme for Government can be broadly summarised as follows: supporting the development and implementation of social partnership, working with the British Government and the parties in Northern Ireland to achieve the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement in all its aspects, co-ordinating the e-government initiative to bring about an expansion in the range and quality of on-line Government services and ensuring that Ireland's key objectives in the European Union are carried forward in the context of my role as a member of the European Council.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The programme for Government specifically promised to reduce primary school class sizes so that the average class size for under-nines would be 20 students. Today, 99,464 primary school children are taught in classes of between 30 and 34 children. A further 8,931 primary school children have class sizes of 35 to 39, while a further 162 children are in classes of more than 40——

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Chair is reluctant to intervene, but those are questions specifically for the line Minister. General questions are acceptable at this time.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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This is a general question on the implementation of An Agreed Programme for Government.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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It is a detailed question on education which would be more appropriately put to the line Minister.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Taoiseach has briefing notes that are the same size as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He is well able to answer this question.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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That is not the point. Unfortunately, he is bound by Standing Orders just as the Chair is bound to implement them.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I want the Taoiseach to report on the implementation of primary school class sizes. The Government made a specific commitment and it has not been honoured. If the State cannot provide an appropriate educational base for its children then it has failed. We should not have had a commitment like this in the educational sector——

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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That is not a question.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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——if it was not going to be lived up to. What is the Taoiseach's response on the commitment to ensure 80% of all earners would pay tax at the standard rate? Where does this commitment stand? Will it be honoured by 6 December?

On the general agreement in respect of medical cards which was a central plank of the health element of the programme for Government——

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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Again, this is a question for the appropriate line Minister.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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——200,000 full medical cards were promised. This was watered down to doctor-only cards in 2005, and only 12,000 have been delivered in the past two years. These are three areas which were major planks of the programme for Government and I would like the Taoiseach to comment on all three.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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They are the responsibility of the line Ministers.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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You want him to say that this is a detailed question for the line Minister.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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I do not. I do not have any control over what he says.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Taoiseach is well able to answer these questions and the Chair should allow him to do so.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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I appreciate that, but questions that are for line Ministers should be left to them.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It is in the programme for Government.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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You are trying to influence the Taoiseach's response.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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May I give a general response, a Cheann Chomhairle, without going into detail? We have substantially reduced class sizes and the pupil-teacher ratio. We have transformed the learning environment for those with special needs and have launched major initiatives to tackle educational disadvantage. We have put resources into all communities. There are thousands of extra teachers and teaching assistants. We have reduced the pupil-teacher ratio far below the norm in disadvantaged areas. This was a policy objective. We believed we should put teachers into schools in disadvantaged communities and it has worked successfully. One may say that this should be done across the board in a way that does not affect disadvantaged schools, but class sizes in most disadvantaged areas are now 15 and under. That was the right thing to do. It does not mean that we will not continue to reduce class sizes in other areas.

On the medical card issue, not alone have we increased the numbers significantly but when people are working there is not the same demand for medical cards, although we also moved to a net pay basis, changing all the criteria. That was done with the medical cards system before we introduced the doctor-only cards. It is interesting that has not achieved the forecast numbers because income levels are far higher than the numbers based on the CSO figures a few years ago. If they were not, they would have claimed those cards. There have been three advertising campaigns for doctor-only medical cards but they still have not achieved the figures forecast.

We have returned more than €5 billion to the people in tax reductions. We have cut the standard rate and continue to make progress on the 18% rate but the important things were to improve the entry point system, which is now €200, which we said we would do, and to remove minimum pay from the tax net. There are approximately 750,000 people who are not eligible for tax at all as against 350,000 seven years ago. The 80:20 issue has not been achieved but the targeted measures to help single people, married couples, those with families, people with low incomes and those on the minimum wage were more important objectives.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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In the Taoiseach's main reply, he stated it was the responsibility of the individual Minister to oversee the implementation of specific commitments in the programme for Government. Has the Taoiseach seen any situation arising across his Department's areas of responsibility where commitments in the programme for Government have been diluted, torn up or shredded by other agencies entrusted to carry out the commitments made by his Department in that programme? To illustrate the point, I instanced the commitment under the health portfolio to create 3,000 additional public hospital beds. Professor Drumm of the HSE has stated that these are not needed and will not be pursued. Has the Taoiseach seen that situation apply under his Department's aegis? What will the Taoiseach do about the specific instance I have cited?

As it falls to the Taoiseach's Department to anchor same, will he advise us why it was decided not to publish an annual progress report on the implementation of the programme for Government this year, as has happened each year since 2002?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I hope no one shreds any of the initiatives or proposals from my Department but from time to time people would have a different means or timescale for implementing them. That is always an issue we must try to resolve. The timescales and formats are not always as we set out in the programme for Government; that is part of the system we must engage with. We did an annual audit to keep things under review, to keep a focus and maintain a pressure on trying as far as we could, and we do this for a high proportion of our commitments, to implement them fully or as nearly as we could.

We did not publish the review this year because we are coming to the end of the programme for Government and we decided to go to the end of 2006 before publishing. Obviously there would not be much point in publishing the programme in August next year because at that stage the life of the current Government will be over.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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What about the hospital beds? That is a huge dichotomy.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The view of the management of the HSE is that 3,000 beds are not required. Its view is that the utilisation of existing beds, plus the 1,300 new beds that have been delivered by this Government and 450 that are planned, should, with better utilisation and more day cases, fulfil the need.

When we were talking about 3,000 beds we were not talking about day cases being where they are now — there are 500,000 such cases per year. At the time, in 1999 to 2000, when the survey took place, there were fewer than 100,000 day cases. The HSE management's argument is that because day cases are being used to this extent, the formulation of figures that gave the 3,000 is not required. This is the international trend, with the utilisation of day cases, more flexible working and more use of technology giving the turnover that means that level of beds is not required.

Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Less than half the number cited by the Taoiseach has been provided.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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The Government's environmental commitments clearly state that it will implement greenhouse gas taxation policies on a phased, incremental basis. Can we take it that commitment has been shredded and will not be implemented at all? What about the commitment to extend the levy on plastic bags to other areas such as non-reusable packaging? Has that been shredded or does it still stand? The Government stated that it would implement and improve, where necessary, the full range of ethics legislation. When the Government made that commitment, did the Taoiseach have in mind the Prevention of Corruption Act 1916? Its implementation is open to question.

Road safety continues to be a very serious area, with 99 people killed in road traffic accidents in the first three months of the year. The programme for Government states that the Government will introduce road safety and safe driving instruction in the secondary school curriculum. Will renewed emphasis be placed on this and can we expect to see a serious change in that before the election given the nature of the road accidents that are taking place?

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Generally, is it not the case that, in respect of the programme for Government, in critical areas like health, social housing and education, the Government is nowhere near meeting its targets? We were supposed to take four out of every five taxpayers from the top rate of tax. We were supposed to supply 200,000 medical cards but the Taoiseach says the reason for the minuscule take-up of the doctor-only card is because of pay rates and the economy. That does not accord with the incidence of low pay that all the figures show is prevalent in this economy.

Social housing as a proportion of housing output and given demand was higher in the 1970s. Progress towards the commitment on a pupil-teacher ratio of 20:1 in schools in terms of primary children under nine is way off target. Is it not the case that the targets set by Government four and a half years ago are nowhere near to being met?

The commitment on transport states that the Government will develop the metro for Dublin on a PPP basis, making the maximum use of private finance and achieving a link to Dublin Airport by 2007.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I do not think Deputy Rabbitte is suggesting that we said we would have it all built by 2007. We were not trying to do that.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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The Government should get the press release done.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, recently did a very detailed update on environmental issues. Across almost 50 measures there has been substantial progress and success in a range of areas. We will continue, as long as we are in office, to implement these measures.

There is a long list of actions taken to improve road safety. On the particular matter mentioned by Deputy Sargent about looking at building road safety into the schools programme, particularly for transition year, I am not sure of the exact position but it is still being developed and examined to try to make the actual driving end of it part of the curriculum for transition year students, rather than just what happens at present where it is part of the education system with road safety lectures and films and so on. I think there is potential to do that.

The point I made on medical cards and the doctor-only medical card figures was that, after three significant campaigns, if the income levels were below the ratios, people would have taken up the cards. People who are suffering poverty or difficulties have full medical cards. There has been a low number of doctor-only cards but this has to mean that the income levels did not fulfil the criteria, even though the figures at the time would have shown that we should have taken in an enormous amount. Even after three campaigns that has not been the case. Those income figures also apply to a number of other areas in social welfare.

On social housing, it is correct to say that in the 1970s we built proportionally more social housing against the total but let us be honest, the answer to that is that people were leaving the country at a rate of knots and there was hardly any private housing. In one year — I think it was 1983 or 1984 — out of 24,000 houses built about six were built in the public sector. That is because we had 20% unemployment and emigration was running at 50,000 a year. The position now is that out of 90,000 new houses, first-time buyers buy about half or 45% of those. It is an entirely different position. This year, between one scheme and another in affordable housing, we are proportionally benefiting a very high number of people but proportionate against 90,000. That is only playing with figures if we are honest.

On a general point, across the range of Government services, whether it is taxation — where we have cut the standard rate of income tax from 27% to 20% and the top rate from 48% to 42%; the entry point to the tax system is now €300; earners are exempt in huge numbers; and people on low pay are not paying any tax — or in education including the range of services and school buildings, the number of teachers, special needs teachers, home liaison teachers etc., the Government has substantially delivered on a very demanding programme. It has been able to do that at a time when we were still able to cut the national debt, still have Government surpluses, still be able to avoid paying huge amounts of money on interest and put money away for the social welfare difficulties of the future when we will have an older community. That has been an enormous success and is recognised as such inside and outside this country.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Did the Taoiseach indicate that the carbon levy was or was not——

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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We must move on to requests under Standing Order 31.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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I seek clarification.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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We are well over time. The Chair has been generous to Deputy Sargent this morning.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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I do not want the Taoiseach to mislead the House. He stated the Government was implementing all the recommendations. Does that include the carbon levy?