Major Promises, Little Delivery: A Government that has lost its way

Labour Party Leader Brendan Howlin TD has described the lack of a National Broadband Plan before Easter as further evidence of the ineffective management of domestic policy by this Government, alongside a string of other missed deadlines.

Deputy Howlin said:

“This government is continuing to make promises that it does not deliver on. The latest example is the news that the National Broadband Plan will not be discussed at Cabinet in advance of Easter despite this promise by Minister Bruton.

“It is one thing for a single plan to be delayed due to research or other background work being completed. But this Government has a track record of non-delivery despite a string of high-profile launches carefully curated by the Government communications team.

“We need a clear explanation of this latest delay from Minister Bruton. Is there wrangling going on between different government departments? Is there a problem with the likely cost of delivering rural broadband? Have other options been considered, or is there even now a rushed process going on to find some plausible alternative?

“This is not the only delayed plan. Minister Bruton began his tenure some months ago with much fanfare around a promise to deliver an action plan on climate change. We are still waiting for that.

“Labour has put the national interest first by backing the Government on Brexit policy. But there is now a tendency to use Brexit as the excuse for getting nothing else done in domestic policy.

“Several housing plans and strategies have been launched, but there is still no clear vision of either a development model for housing or a funding model that will plausibly deliver public housing on the scale that is required.

“The Government accepted the all-party SláinteCare report on the future of the health service, but they have produced no implementation plan and no funding to kick-start a transition process.

“A report before Easter on the next steps for broadband was promised by the Government. Yet again, they have failed to deliver.”