Taoiseach Enda Kenny has asked Government departments to draw up

policies and plans that can be implemented in the last 18 months of the Coalition’s term.

As part of the so-called reset process following the local and European election drubbing for Fine Gael and Labour, achievable goals are being considered across Government to bring focus to the remainder of the lifetime of the Coalition.

With a reshuffle due after the Labour Party elects a new leader on July 4th, senior Government sources said the ideas under consideration would outlast any change in personnel around the Cabinet table.

It was also stressed that the process now under way was being carried out on a formal, rather than informal, basis, while some sources said it was being worked on among a small group of senior advisers and officials. The process is separate to the initial back-channel talks between Mr Kenny’s officials and Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton’s senior advisers, but the outcome will “frame the discussion in pointing out what remains to be done” in a new Fine Gael-Labour agreement, according to one senior figure.

Clear favourite

While the Labour leadership has yet to be decided Ms Burton is the clear favourite in the contest with Alex White, the Minister of State for Health.

It is understood the process of asking for policy priorities is being driven by the Department of the Taoiseach, which has responsibility for monitoring the programme for government. “It’s about looking forward, not looking back,” said one senior Government source. “Departments can set out what can be achieved, and that can feed into the reset process.”

A full-scale renegotiation of the programme for government has been ruled out, with both Fine Gael and Labour feeling it would only cause disagreements which would not be easily resolved.

Senior Labour sources say the likely outcome of any fresh negotiations between the Coalition partners is a “programme of deliverables” which could be achieved ahead of the next general election due in spring 2016.

‘Thematic’

The emphasis of this process is likely to be “thematic”, focusing on areas such as housing, one senior Labour figure said.

Others said a number of broad goals still stand, such as creating an additional 100,000 jobs by 2016, extending credit to small and medium-sized enterprises, helping those in mortgage distress and sticking to the fiscal target of bringing the deficit down to below 3 per cent of GDP by next year.

It was also pointed out that the Government’s overarching plan for the remainder of its term remained the medium-term economic strategy agreed following the exit from the bailout last December, and which runs to 2020.

New plan

It is also claimed every new plan and proposal would be “job-proofed”.

“It will actually be a meaningful document, unlike some that came before,” one figure said of the new Coalition plan.

“It will be a refreshing of the programme for government, but is seen as being supplementary to it, rather than replacing it.

“It will be a plan for the next two years and how we get to the general election,” said the Coalition source.