Government a class apart when it comes to broken promises

THE description of a government promise that isn’t going to be fulfilled as “a noble aspiration” is certainly an accurate assessment.

From the Government’s perspective, though, it is perhaps an unfortunate phrase to put into the public lexicon as it could be used in the context of large swathes of the entire Programme for Government.

The acknowledgement by Education Minister Mary Hanafin that the pledge to cut primary school class sizes to 20 by 2007 will probably not be met may have been grounded in reality, but it means another addition to the list of broken promises made by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.