Government’s climate plan will have big impact on rural Ireland

World of Politics with Harry McGee

Richard Bruton loves action plans. When he became Minister for Enterprise and Jobs in 2011, he had an action plan for jobs. He caught a wave on that one. He took over just when the economy was at its lowest. A VAT cut in hospitality and restaurants gave the sector a great buzz. He easily met his targets.

On to his next portfolio, Education. No sooner had his feet landed under the desk than he produced an action plan there too. He never got a chance to complete it because Denis Naughton’s hurried departure from Communications and Climate Action saw Bruton transferred into that Department.

He’s not close to a year in the new job and now he’s produced his latest action plan. This one is arguably the most ambitious, and will set the ‘roadmap’ (how they love that word) for Government policy on climate change for the next three decades.

Action plans do what they say on the tin. They set out a set number of actions and every year there is an annual review to see what has been achieved, or how progress has been.

They are the only legacy in government of the Troika. When they were in Ireland there was a Memorandum of Understanding. Every three months there would be set number of conditions which the then Fine Gael-Labour coalition had to fulfill. Many of these were concrete things, like slashing spending and raising taxes, or disposing of State assets, or reforming a protected shelter like the legal profession (unsurprisingly, the latter never happened).

Bruton’s action plans have not been quite so precise nor have they relied on such tight deadlines. But they have been a very effective means for him to set out his stall on policy, and show how well he is doing.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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