This is the final annual report on the Programme for Government agreed between the Fine Gael and Labour parties in March 2011 and the Statement of Government Priorities agreed by the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in July 2014.
Across the five years of Government we have delivered or have made significant progress on 93% of the 714 individual commitments contained in our joint plans.
We put these plans together at a time of deep crisis as we entered office.
Our banks on the brink of collapse. Our public finances in chaos. Our international reputation destroyed. Our people out of hope, out of work.
The previous government saw Ireland excluded from the international markets and brought the Troika to our door.
It was a government of public spectacle, empty gesture, of popular and party ‘form’ over political and national ‘substance’.
And Ireland paid the price for such superficiality.
On coming to office we chose to be radically different.
For Ireland’s sake, we needed to be.
No more boom and bust. No more credit-fuelled fantasy.
As a government we were certain that Ireland’s recovery and then its sustained progress should be based on jobs, exports, industry and more productivity across a broad range of sectors.
So on coming to office, we put our plan into action.
It was a plan to fix the banks, get the public finances in order, get our people back to work.
But thanks to the Irish people’s patience and determination, slowly, steadily, it began to work.
And today we see the early results.
Because today, Ireland is the fastest-growing economy in Europe.
Since the end of the bail-out in 2013 our economy in real GDP grew by 5.2% in 2014.
In 2015, it is likely to have grown by at least a further 6.2%.
Government borrowing fell from 11% of GDP in 2010 to less than 2% last year.
Since the low-point of 2012, 135,000 jobs have been added to the economy.
Unemployment is down from a peak of over 15% to now: 8.8%.
We’re back in the international markets.
At home, we’re getting back to work.
Our government has been a truly re-forming government.
We have re-formed our legislation to make our society more inclusive. We have put children first, established Tusla, and put the marriage equality referendum to the people.
Where scarce resources allowed, we have prioritised families: free GP care for under-6’s, and an extra year’s free pre-school.
Towards a more open government and public service: Freedom of Information was extended to all public bodies in 2015 and the Independent Policing Authority has come into effect.
Yes - the progress is good and welcome.
But is it enough? No.
For some families there is still too much anxiety, too much worry about making ends meet.
Unemployment, while falling, still remains too high.
Our public finances are still not fully repaired.
Our public services and infrastructure need more investment.
But at the same time, because of the way our plan has worked, there is a new optimism.
And there is a strong basis for being optimistic.
But because it is a recovery of substance this time, it will bring to our people a deeper and better and more sustainable prosperity.
It is a recovery that will bring long-term economic stability, that will guarantee fairness and respect to all our people in every part of Ireland.
We must keep the recovery going.
If we do, it will continue to translate into real improvements in people’s day-to-day lives.
But Irish people sense and know that despite the new growing confidence they might feel, the economic recovery remains fragile and incomplete.
There is so much more work to do to get where we want and need to be, as a country, an economy, a society.
The people don’t want to see the country slipping back.
Nervous of losing what they have sacrificed so much for - and have achieved.
They look to other countries and see how hard-won economic progress can be all too easily reversed.
Our commitment is that under this Government, we are never going back.
With the will of the people, this Government will keep the recovery going.
ENDS