FIANNA FÁIL, FINE Gael and the Regional Independents Group have agreed a draft programme for Government after five weeks of negotiations.

The programme will be ratified by members of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the coming days. 

The document is essentially a to do list for the government, setting out its policy commitments for the next five years. It will guide all of the government’s priorities over the coming years.

It is made up of a mix of policy proposals set out in the election manifestos of the contributing parties. A lot of these pledges did not make the cut.

Here are the main points from it broken down by area.

The document sets out how the rotating Taoiseach arrangement will work, with Micheál Martin holding the office until 16 November 2027. 

It also commits the government to delivering five Budgets with a general election called no sooner than after the enactment of the principal measures to be announced in the Budget in late 2029.

Housing

• Launch a ‘starter home’ programme – there are few details on what this would entail 
• Retain and revise the Help to Buy scheme, but no commitment to increase it to €40,000 as pledged by Fine Gael
• Work with the banks to expand the First Home scheme to first time buyers of second-hand homes.
• Extend the vacancy and dereliction refurbishment grants to 2030
• Enhance the enforcement powers of the RTB
• Establish a Rent Price Register
• Build over 300,000 new homes by the end of 2030
• Create a land price register
• Set binding targets for the use of modern methods of construction in at least 25% of all State-backed housing
• Promote the use of timber in new buildings
• Expand the role of Credit Unions in the housing market
• Strengthen the Land Development Agency’s compulsory purchase powers
• Actively recruit construction sector workers abroad through state agencies and embassies.

Childcare and parents

• Progressively reduce the cost of childcare to €200 per month per child
• Explore the establishment of a managed savings account for newborns with an initial once-off contribution by the State, ensuring lower income families benefit most from the scheme
• Explore options to cap costs for larger families
• Reduce the administrative burden on providers
• Provide capital investment to build or purchase state-owned childcare facilities
• Reduce the administrative burden on providers
• Provide capital investment to build or purchase state-owned childcare facilities.
• Plan the development of State-led facilities in tandem with the school building programme.
• Explore making available an extra hour of ECCE each day in the second year of preschool.
• Evaluate options to amend the ECCE eligibility criteria.
• Extend the National Childcare Scheme to childminders working in the family home.

Disability

• Continue to significantly increase the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government.
• Consider the development of a multi-annual approach to for disability service funding, staffing and operations.
• Reform the Disability Act 2005.
• Create a dedicated National Therapy Service in education, beginning in special schools.
• Establish an annual Children’s Therapies Grant Fund.
• Double the number of college places for speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, psychologists and social workers.
• Expand programmes like WorkAbility, Employability, and the new Work and Access Programme.
• Increase personal assistance hours.
• Increase Disability Home Support hours and work towards aligning Disability Home Support pay with rates for Older Person Services.
• Work to end the practice of placing young people with disabilities in nursing homes
• Dedicated funding stream for assistive technology.
• Expand the Travel Assistance Scheme nationally.
• Extend the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Grant Scheme.
• Work to reduce the 24-hour notice requirement for disabled users of rail services.
• Increase number of neurology nurse specialists and neurology consultants.

Tax

• Maintain a broad tax base to guard against the event of a downturn
• Implement progressive changes in taxation if the economy remains strong, including indexing credits and bands
• Managing the public finances in the event of a downturn is a subhead in the Pfg. The government promises to: Maintain capital spending to support growth in the economy; postpone changes to income tax credits or bands; work to protect the funding of existing level of public service delivery.

Social Protection

• Maintain the State Pension Age at 66 and progressively increase weekly pension payments
• Examine improvements to Fuel Allowance, Household Benefits Package and Living Alone Allowance to support vulnerable groups such as those in receipt of the Working Family Payment
• Examine what modifications or changes may be made to support women who currently fall outside the existing schemes to qualify for a State Pension
• Increase core welfare payments, ensuring that resources are also targeted at people who are unable to work
• Progressively increase the Child Support Payment.
• Explore a targeted Child Benefit Payment and examine how it might work alongside other supports to reduce child poverty

Energy Costs

• Acknowledging the increased energy cost pressures on households and businesses, the Government pledges to bring forward taxation measures to help contain energy costs, including with regard to VAT.
• Commission an independent review into the speed and level of passthrough from wholesale prices to retail prices.

Education

• Aim to reduce the general Pupil Teacher Ratio at primary level to 19:1 over the term of government
• Expand the School Transport Service to include 100,000 additional students by 2030
• Create a dedicated National Therapy Service in Education, beginning with special schools
• Reform the Drumcondra Tests which are used to gauge student learning to include assessments for dyslexia.
• Increase the take-up of foreign languages in our schools and expand the teaching of modern foreign languages in primary schools.
• Invest in ICT (Information and communication technology) and the development of appropriate digital skills in our schools, and embed ICT and coding in the curriculum
• Develop a new curriculum for Irish Sign Language for primary and post-primary students up to Leaving Certificate level.
• Continue to expand and improve the Free Hot School Meals programme
• Provide free schoolbooks to all children in the free education system and introduce changes as needed to the operation of this scheme

Health 

• Expand free GP services to children up to at least 12 years, and keep its further extension under review
• Possible ban on energy drinks for kids
• Consider further reductions in the Drugs Payment Scheme
• Explore further ways to reduce hospital car parking charges
• Continue to extend access to free contraception
• Seek to further increase medical card income limits
• Ensure that the planned rollout of free HRT medicines is available at no cost for the drug/product.
• Increase the number of healthcare college places in nursing, medicine and other healthcare professions
• Increase the number of public-only consultants
• Increase capacity by between 4,000 and 4,500 new and refurbished inpatient hospital beds across the country
• Increase ICU bed capacity by at least a further 100 beds.
• Provide more community beds
• Build four new elective hospitals (Cork, Dublin (2 sites) and Galway).
• Establish six surgical hubs in Cork, Dublin (2 sites), Galway, Limerick and Waterford, and explore the provision of an additional surgical hub for the NorthWest in a timely manner
• Open the Children’s Hospital
• Increase staffing and resources for children’s spinal surgery, as well as coordinating spinal services across hospitals
• Increase the number of consultants in emergency medicine by a further 50%
• Hire more public dentists
• Agree a new Dental Treatment Service Scheme for medical card holders.Dental Treatment Service Scheme for medical card holders
• Expand access to the orthodontic scheme for children and strengthen the School Dental Programme

Justice

• A new Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration is to be set up
• Introduce Garda Hubs at major bus and train stations to respond to incidents on public transport
• Ban the wearing of face coverings at protests and potentially ban protests outside private hoomes
• Construct a new prison at Thornton Hall in North County Dublin
• Bring in electronic tagging for some prisoners
• Increase the use of ASBOs to tackle anti-social behaviour
• Bring in live facial recognition technology for cases of missing people, terrorism and national security, and allow gardaí to use AI in criminal investigations
• Expand the powers of the Criminal Assets Bureau and give it the power to publish a list of tax defaulters
• Provide funding for recruiting at least 5,000 new garda recruits over the next five years
• Roll out a ‘see something, say something’ messaging system across the country to help address crime

Climate Change

• Set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
• Publish an annual Climate Action Plan, placing a focus on a smaller number of strategic actions across all sectors, and publish a quarterly progress report.
• Recognise the distinct characteristics of biogenic methane, as described by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and advocate for the accounting of this Greenhouse gas to be re-classified at EU and international level.
• Complete a review of greenhouse gas emissions on a consumption basis, with a goal of ensuring that Irish and EU actions support the reduction of global emissions, as well as on our own territories.
• Implement a Whole-of-Government Strategy to fully integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into national policies and initiatives, ensuring that each goal is actively pursued across all levels of government.
• Ramp up targets to deliver more B2- equivalent home retrofits each year from 2026 to 2030, with a focus on lower income households.
• Revise and improve the provision of grants and financing models for homeowners who wish to retrofit, enhancing energy efficiency and reducing costs.
• Deliver 9GW of onshore wind, 8GW solar and at least 5GW of offshore wind by 2030.
• Move to holding at least one Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS) auction per year to ensure that Ireland continues to bring renewable energy projects onstream at a fast pace.
• Allow data centres that contribute to economic growth and efficient grid usage, such as prioritising waste heat capture for district heating systems and other local uses.
• Enhance data centres’ use of renewable energy sources, energy efficient technology and effective solutions, such as waste heat capture to reduce their carbon footprint.

Transport

• Create a Transport Security Force under the National Transport Authority, which would operate and have similar powers to the Airport Police and Customs officers.
• Roll out contactless fare payments on all public transport and keep fares low and affordable.
• Commission an independent feasibility study into continuing MetroLink from the city to South West Dublin.
• Examine the further expansion of free public transport for children.
• Ensure each metropolitan area has a tailored transport strategy including frequent bus services and light rail where appropriate
• Mandate the NTA to run a number of pilots enabling ride-sharing platforms to operate to improve rural connectivity
• Develop sustainable transport options in the commuter belt, including provision of shuttle buses to train stations from surrounding towns and villages
• Offer a bike scheme specifically for third-level students, mirroring the bike-towork scheme, and coordinate bike and e-bike rental programmes across further and higher education campuses
• Increase funding for new roads as part of the NDP review and the maintenance of existing roads
• Introduce new road safety cameras to automatically detect mobile phone use and non-wearing of seat belts.
• Review a graduated penalty points system

Enterprise

• On VAT for businesses, the document says the government will acknowledge the “increased energy cost pressures” on home and firms and bring forward taxation measures to “help contain energy costs, including with regard to VAT”. It has been widely reported that the rate of VAT on energy will remain at 9%.
• Create 300,000 new jobs by 2030 and a develop a 10-year plan to support the growth of and job creation in the SME sector
• Publish an action plan to boost competitiveness and productivity in Ireland – in line with similar schemes in the EU – within the first 12 months of the government’s term
• Scale and grow Irish firms to attract foreign direct investment by scaling back and reducing costs of doing business in Ireland.
• Make Ireland the most-secure country in Europe for data protection
• Boost Ireland’s participation in common infrastructure projects in the EU and ratify the EU-Canada free trade agreement for Irish businesses
• “Rigorously implement” the SME test on every new piece of legislation and regulation impacting small businesses
• Provide on-the-job training and apprenticeship schemes and published a new national strategy for local business within the first year of the government’s term

Higher Education

• Continue to reduce the Student Contribution Fee over the lifetime of the Government
• Increase maintenance grants and reform SUSI
• Develop a multi-annual plan to urgently deliver new student accommodation, including through state financed purpose-built student accommodation on public or private lands.
• Enable Technological Universities to borrow funds to provide for on-campus student accommodation.
• Introduce a ‘Second Chance’ to ensure students going through a ’repeat year’ or changing courses on one occasion can access the Free Fees Initiative to avoid them being penalised and having to pay higher rates of fees.

Agriculture

• Increase scheme supports for suckler farmers over a five-year term in office and ensure straightforward measures to encourage uptake.
• Increase scheme supports for sheep farmers over a five-year term in office and ensure straightforward measures to encourage uptake.
• Increase scheme support to the Dairy Beef scheme over a five-year term in office and ensure straightforward measures to encourage uptake.
• Fight at EU level for a fully supported CAP with an increased budget.
• Reward farmers for producing energy for their private use or by selling excess energy to the electricity grid to diversify their income.
• Examine community-led ownership models for renewable energy production as an additional income stream for farmers.
• Assign funds from the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund to the agricultural sector.
• Establish a Cabinet Committee on Water Quality chaired by the Taoiseach to coordinate water quality improvements across all sectors.
• Work with farmers and industry to secure Ireland’s nitrates derogation at EU level, by implementing the Nitrates Derogation Renewal Plan in support of retention.
• Examine potential barriers for women farmers within the taxation system to ensure greater inclusivity and fairness.
• Ensure the continued support to the Horse and Greyhound Fund, considering the vital economic and social contribution generated by these sectors in rural areas.

Arts and Culture 

• Assess the Basic Income for Artists pilot to “maximise its impact”.
• Enact legislation to update licensing laws to allow for later opening hours, but it adds that this should be “reflective of local needs”.
• Commits to the 481 film tax credit and says it will examine the feasibility of a minor capital works grant scheme to support arts and cultural facilities that are not funding through the Arts Council.
• Introduce a Culture Card for 16- and 17-year-olds is also to be looked at to give them access to theatre, music and art events.
• The government says it will “redevelop the GPO as a historic landmark” and “enhance its role as a key cultural landmark”.
• Establishing and funding an Irish Town of Culture programme to “support local creative projects”.
• Continue the Night-Time Economy Support Scheme.
• During the lifetime of the government, commemorations will be held to mark the 250th anniversaries of the birth of Daniel O’Connell (2025) and the US Declaration of Independence (2026).
• Other commemorations of note will be the birth of Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington and the death of Constance Markievicz (2027).
• The birth of the Irish pound in 1928 will be marked, as well as the 150th anniversary of the Land League in 2029. 

National Security and Defence

• The Government will preserve and protect Ireland’s policy of active military neutrality but said it will not be politically neutral
• Reform of Triple Lock mechanism which is directly related to how Ireland deploys troops abroad. Currently the system requires a UN mandate, Cabinet approval and a vote in the Dáil – the Government plan is to remove the need of a UN mandate.
• In regard to the capability planning which arose out of an Action Plan following the Commission on the Defence Forces the incoming parties state that they will move from the Level of Ambition Two to highest rating of Level of Ambition Three. This level will involve the purchase of fighter jets for instance and a greater, more modern Defence Forces.
• Retain the Special Criminal Court
• Consider the report on the Offences Against the State Act
• Enact new Data Retention and Interception laws

Occupied Territories Bill 

• On the Occupied Territories Bill, this is the only mention: “Progress legislation prohibiting goods from Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Drugs

• Commit to a health-led approach to drug addiction and divert those found in possession of drugs for personal use to health services.
• Re-establish the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Drugs Use and ensure that the Department of Health and the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration work collaboratively on any recommendations issued by the Committee.

Rejuvenating Dublin City

• Implement the Dublin City Centre Taskforce; apply this taskforce model to other regions, starting with a taskforce for Cork City which will launch shortly.
• Significantly boost Garda numbers in Dublin.
• Introduce improved security measures in the city centre with increased CCTV coverage and a targeted response to reduce open drug use.
• Support the designation of O’Connell Street as a Urban Development Zone to fast track planning and mixed use development.
• Honour the historic significance of the GPO with a redevelopment plan; provide funding and resources to the National Concert Hall
• Collaborate with cultural institutions to offer more late-night events and extended opening hours throughout the year by enacting the Night-time Economy Bill
• Launch an Urban Communities Initiative to revitalise disadvantaged city areas with focused community development and youth programmes delivered by all State agencies

The Gaeltacht

• Introduce special development plans for Gaeltacht areas and specific housing targets
• Resource Údarás na Gaeltachta to offer Gaeltacht businesses effective levels of financial support and advice
• Increase the dedicated Irish-medium teacher training programmes
• Restore direct elections to Údarás na Gaeltachta
• Resource the provision of services that support families and provide family supports through Irish
• Support expansion of broadcasting licences for mainstream Irish language radio stations which focus on young listeners
• Continue to support the growth of TG4 and Raidió na Gaeltachta

Note: Our newsteam are still poring over the draft Programme for Government document – this article will be updated with more detail throughout the afternoon.