The revised Programme for Government is not a plan for national recovery: it is programme for survival for Fianna Fail and the Greens.

It is not surprising that Fianna Fail and Green Party negotiators have cobbled together an agreed programme. An election now would be a recipe for mutually assured destruction for the two parties in government as, given the opportunity, the electorate would wipe out the Greens and decimate Fianna Fail.

Neither is it surprising that Fianna Fail would throw a few crumbs in the direction of the Green Party, but what is surprising is that the Green Party has settled for so little. The document published today falls many miles short of the shopping list set out by the Greens only ten days ago
Many of the elements in the revised programme that the Greens are now trying to sell as ‘new’ were in fact in the original programme for government; others have previously been announced by various ministers.

Some of the Green demands have been abandoned altogether, such as the demand for a single tier health system or an additional tax rate. Others have been watered down to such an extent as to be virtually meaningless. For instance while there is a commitment not to reintroduce third level fees, Fianna Fail has made it clear that they intend to force students and their families to pay for third level education – fees will now simply be reintroduced by the back door, using a different term.

And while the commitment to appoint new 500 new teachers is welcome, it falls far short of the Green’s commitment to reverse the education cuts that were such a central feature of the last two budgets.

Even in the area of political reform, where the Green Party never fails to proclaim its own virtue, little has been achieved. The commitment to establish the Independent Electoral Commission was contained in the original Programme for Government, published almost two and a half years ago. There is already broad cross party consensus on the need to reform the system of expenses, while the ban on corporate donations will do nothing to prevent super wealthy individuals from continuing to contribute to Fianna Fail.

One of the matters of most concern to the Labour Party is the absence of any commitment to protect those on social welfare. It was significant that on the day when this Programme was being finalised, the Minister for Social Welfare was again warning of the social welfare cuts that are coming down the road. When an elderly person finds his or her pension cut in the December budget, it will be scant consolation that John Gormley secured a commitment to ban fur farming within three years.

Many of those who voted for the Green Party in the general election of 2007 did so because they genuinely believed that the Greens represented something different in Irish politics and that they party would bring a new dimension to government. Based on this document, the Green Party appears to have abandoned all ambition and is content to play a permanent role as second fiddle to Fianna Fail.