Programme for Government: Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has claimed the Government has already delivered on three quarters of its 477 promises and pledges in its five year Programme for Government.
Launching the Government's third annual progress report, Mr Cowen also rejected claims of widespread financial waste on Government projects.
Opposition parties dismissed the report, however, with Fine Gael describing it as "self-congratulatory nonsense".
They claimed the Government had failed on a variety of major pledges, including the delivery of a metro line to Dublin airport.
For the first time since 2002, the annual progress report has admitted that its Programme for Government target of reaching the 0.7 per cent of GDP target for overseas development will not be reached.
It states that the Government is committed to the target, but is now reviewing how and when the target will be reached.
Mr Cowen said Taoiseach Bertie Ahern would be making an announcement on the revised timetable at the UN in New York in September.
He defended the Government's record on development aid, saying it had risen from €39 per person in Ireland in 1997 to €136 this year.
Mr Cowen also said the Irish economy was the best performing economy in Europe with the lowest level of unemployment and the lowest level of national debt. There was also record investment in public capital projects.
He said people on the average industrial wage were now earning €10,500 more than they were when the Government took office, and paying €250 less in taxes. "These are all solid achievements in Government," he said. "We are three years into this administration, we have two more years to go. We don't say everything is flying in every respect. There are problems in the nature of things, but frankly some of the problems are problems of success."
He acknowledged that there were challenges delivering on infrastructure projects and that there had been delays, blaming them on court delays and the scale of the projects.
"There have been some delays that are simply unavoidable, but that is part of living in our country," he said.
However, he rejected suggestions that there was a problem with cost overruns and State projects going over budget and over time such as road and infrastructure developments, a number of which have been highlighted by the Public Accounts Committee and the Comptroller and Auditor General.
"I think there's something of a misrepresentation here." He said that if factors such as construction inflation and upgrading of projects were taken into account, the cost increases were not multiples of the original budget. "That's ridiculous."
In relation to a delay on a Government decision regarding the metro, he said the Government intended to make an announcement on a full 10 year transport plan in the coming months.
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton described the report as "self-congratulatory nonsense" and claimed the Government had failed to deliver "in almost every area of public service".
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the items "for which Fianna Fáil and the PDs are claiming credit are the normal business of Government which would happen, regardless of what parties were in power".