Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 11: To ask the Taoiseach if he will provide a progress report on the Programme for Government as he approaches his first 100 days in office. [14531/11]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 12: To ask the Taoiseach if he will publish the specific list of required policies which he agreed with individual ministers that were to be implemented within 100 days of 9 March 2011. [15387/11]

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 13: To ask the Taoiseach the progress that has been made in the implementation of the Programme for Government as we approach the Government's first 100 days in office. [15607/11]

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 11 to 13, inclusive, together. The programme for Government was adopted by the Government at its first meeting as the framework for its work over the coming years. It sets out the policies and initiatives to be progressed over the term of the Government to tackle the many challenges facing the country. My Department will be supporting the implementation of the programme as a whole and it will do this with a more explicit focus on its role as a Cabinet office. Whereas my Department co-ordinates policy in a number of ways, responsibility for implementing specific aspects of the programme rests with the relevant Department. The priority for implementation rests in the first instance with each Minister having regard to the programme and to the matrix of priorities and responsibilities that exist within and across each portfolio.

It is my intention, once the first 100 days has been completed, to give a detailed report of the progress made to date under the programme for Government. It should be noted that the Government has already made substantial progress across a number of Departments in meeting its commitments under the programme.

For example, the quarterly review mission under the EU-IMF programme of financial support for Ireland has been successfully concluded. The mission assessed the programme to be on track and that the targets in the programme have been met, and there was agreement to changes to reflect provisions in the programme for Government. Following completion of the solvency stress tests, decisions on the recapitalisation of financial institutions have been made and a comprehensive strategy to reorganise and reform the domestic Irish banks has been adopted. An integrated decision-making structure for dealing with the financial crisis in the shape of the Government economic management committee has been established.

The Nyberg report has been published and the Government has committed to holding a referendum before the end of the year to strengthen the powers of committees to inquire into crucial issues of public concern, such as the banking crisis. Ministerial salaries have been reduced, as has the cost of ministerial transport. Legislation is being prepared on political donations and to enable the number of Deputies to be reduced. The number of Dáil sitting days has been increased through sitting during St. Patrick's week and on Tuesdays following public holidays, and shortening the Easter and summer breaks. A comprehensive spending review has been initiated, the jobs initiative has been announced and the top level appointments committee is being revised so that its chairperson and the majority of its members are drawn from outside the public sector. There will be a more comprehensive report once we reach 100 days in office.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am conscious of the limited time available.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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As Deputy Adams has a question in this group, I want to give him a chance to contribute.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Does the Taoiseach agree that one of the defining features of this Government is its commitment to over spin even the smallest of moves and to brush aside solemn commitments, no matter how recently made? The list which the Taoiseach outlined represents a triumph of optics over substance. The decision of the IMF and the troika reflects the tough budgetary decisions taken in advance of the election. That is the essential reason we are on track from a fiscal and monetary point of view and in the first three months of the year nothing substantive was done in that regard. I look forward to receiving a full report rather than an over spun and selective list.

Does the Taoiseach agree that, after 100 days, he has not fully established his Government? The Minister, Deputy Howlin, who is in charge of a Department, has gone longer without answering questions than any other Minister in the history of the State. He published 29 pages of amendments to the 23 page Bill which provides for the establishment of his Department. The Government is not properly established in terms of portfolios and accountability.

I ask the Taoiseach about the commitment he made to direct all Ministers to focus entirely on their new portfolios and avoid constituency work in their first 100 days. Every Minister is doing constituency work and as many as 100 people are employed on the public payroll to help them. The Taoiseach needs to explain why he broke that commitment. Whenever he is caught breaking a promise, he blames everyone but himself. His decision to break his promise on constituency work has nothing to do with the last Government.

Where are the lists and scorecards he compiled on Ministers and when will they be published? He may recall that when he appeared on the "Late Late Show" he told the nation that he is keeping a scorecard for every Minister and he informed the Dáil that he has agreed a specific list of issues which Ministers were required to deliver within 100 days.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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If Deputy Martin had kept scorecards in his time, the scores would not be great. It is important that we get things right. The Government created entirely new Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Children and Youth Affairs. That was done deliberately so there would be a real change from the carry on of the past. The Deputy indicated he is not interested in Punch and Judy. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform will require clarity from Ministers regarding expenditure in their Departments, their value and effectiveness and whether programmes should be continued, abandoned or expanded. They have to get the true scale of this matter before they can plot their way ahead.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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An bord snip already published a comprehensive spending review.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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One could have added a further 20 pages to the bord snip report and say "of course, away you go" but Governments have to make decisions about people and their lives. We are trying to achieve the right balance. In respect of the establishment of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, we have to be thorough and comprehensive about the issues that may arise in regard to children, youth affairs or whatever. We can draw from every Department to ensure clarity in regard to the powers and authority the Minister can possess. The Ministers, Deputy Howlin and Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, want to answer parliamentary questions as much as anybody else but it is important we ensure an adequate transfer of power to their offices so they are constitutionally and legally entitled to do so.

This is not a case of spin over substance. Important issues must be addressed and one of the iconic failures of Deputy Martin's Government was to drive 13 or 14 State cars to Farmleigh House in the middle of black Friday while saying it would do the best it could. We have changed that.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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You have not.

Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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It is only perception.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I acknowledge it is only perception but it is important that people understand this. We have addressed the issue of ministerial pay and we will do the same again if the people decide to pass the referendum in respect of judicial pay. The Minister for public expenditure will make proposals on ceilings for higher paid public servants and at the highest level in semi-State bodies. Everybody is going to understand there is not a focus on any one sector. If we have to sort out this problem, let it be from the top down and let that be seen to be so.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Tomorrow marks the Government's 100th day and I wish it well because I believe in constructive opposition. Part of the role Sinn Féin is trying to play relates to the notion that good Government needs good Opposition.

The fatal flaw in the Government's position is that, while it made a considerable number of commitments, the past 100 days have seen U-turns, reversals and the breaking of gealltanas i ndiaidh gealltanais. The core of the problem is that the Government's acquiescence to the EU-IMF deal is Fianna Fáil-lite in many ways. As we face into the next 100 days, the Government's decisions on issues such as the universal social charge, the EU-IMF burden, the crisis in the health service which my colleague, Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, warned about or the increase in the pensionable age to 68, are in breach of what it promised in the course of the election. Is it not time that we took a transparent and joined up approach so we can deal with issues on which all of us agree as opposed to the Government dodging these questions?

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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On Leaders' Questions the Deputy raised the legitimate issue of junior doctors and failings within the health structure.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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The Taoiseach never answered me.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I did answer him.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I asked for a statement.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Minister for Health will deal with that matter on Friday morning. In order to deal with those structural defects, we have to determine the scale and nature of the problem and make decisions as to how we are going to rectify and pay for it. That means every cent of public money has to be assessed in terms of its effectiveness for the people it is supposed to serve.

Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Stop putting it in the banks in that case.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy appears to assume that a five year programme is not being implemented in 100 days. He is aware that I support transparency and accountability, and that is why he will be asked, whenever the date of the presidential election is fixed, to vote on giving Oireachtas committees greater powers of compellability of attendance so answers can be given to the public. I share his concerns but we cannot bring change at the click of our fingers. We might be able to do so in a dictatorial setting but we cannot in a democracy. We have to set out the legislation and the question that will give Oireachtas committees additional powers to provide the accountability and transparency he and everyone else wants to see. We have to give effect to that through decisions and in this case a constitutional referendum is required.

Furthermore, as the Ceann Comhairle is aware, we will also seek support from the people on a referendum to give full protection to those who are deemed to be whistleblowers in the sense of making confidential information of relevance available to Deputies or citizens, as the case might be. That is part of the next 100 days and it will be essential that the committees on which Deputies serve have powers of compellability of attendance and, as a consequence, accountability and transparency. That is the way it should be.