Gavan Reilly: By any objective measure, the current government is doing pathetically little

Here we are, then. Congratulations everyone, you made it: you survived another parliamentary term. Don’t you feel accomplished?

If you do, you shouldn’t – even as a Leinster House habitué, parliamentary terms are a pathetic way to measure your life.

The only purpose they serve is as yardsticks by which you can assess the productivity of the Oireachtas, a window for an end-of-term report card.

And, by any objective measure, the current government is doing… pathetically little.

Bear in mind that yes, while the government only took office in January, the Dáil was elected in November.

When the coalition deal was finalised and the Dáil settled into its regular rhythms, therefore, there ought to have been a good throughput of legislation coming onto the books.

Also bear in mind: while constitutionally it’s a ‘new’ government, few would contend that the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael coalition is a new arrangement.

The parties are led by the same two men as before; they remain Taoiseach and Tánaiste; ten of the fifteen people from the last Cabinet still sit around that table.

In the era of coalitions there can have been few instances of such continuity either side of an election.

Another thing to know: when the Dáil was dissolved last November, there were 15 pieces of government legislation still at various points in the pipeline.

That’s not to mention the hundreds of bills proposed by backbenchers and opposition, many of which would have won the government’s sympathies.

Put simply, the machinery of the last government was paused with over a dozen initiatives of its own still in the works.

So, with all of that in mind, how many pieces of law do you think the government, and our lawmakers, have passed since the coalition was formed? The answer by recess will be… ten. It’s usually over 25 by now.

Let me not throw the baby out with the bathwater: some of those laws are major pieces of work.

The Mental Health Bill, which should be signed into law this week, is a landmark overhaul of the rules around consent and involuntary admission to adult mental health centres – something long overdue and long needed.

But also among those tens laws are such rudimentary ones as the emergency designation of the entire country as RPZs – which by its nature is a short and simple act – as well as the tweaks to the property tax rates, a routine purging of old redundant laws, and… a law allowing four, and not merely three, junior ministers to get allowances for sitting at Cabinet.

One of the laws being rushed through this week reflects the Supreme Court ruling last year about the rights of unmarried life partners to access widow’s pensions and the like – worthy, but coming a full 17 months after the court’s ruling.

You might conclude that actually, the Greens had way more clout than they got credit for – and that detangling their input from government is still a work in progress for their partners.

It’s either that, or the current crop don’t really seem to have a keen steer of what they’re doing.

Gavan Reilly is Political Correspondent with Virgin Media News and Political Columnist with the Meath Chronicle. Column appears first in Tuesday's paper!