The Record of the Outgoing Government: Pledge Fulfilment in a Time of Plenty

In this chapter we provide a comprehensive assessment of the outgoing government’s record of election pledge fulfilment. We identify all of the concrete promises contained in the 2020 manifestos of the three government parties and examine what happened to these pledges subsequently, including whether they were included in the programme for government and whether they were fulfilled by the end of the Dáil term. Contrary to popular belief, we find that the Green Party did not exert an outsized influence on government policy; rather, the number of pledges delivered by each party was roughly proportionate to its size. We also compare the pledge fulfilment record of this government with evidence from previous terms, and find that the 2020–24 government enacted a much larger number of election pledges than its predecessors. This reflects the favourable economic circumstances and the well-documented tendency for coalition governments to seek to avoid compromises when resources permit.