Ministers likely to stay put after performance reviews

Government ministers look likely to retain their positions after Enda Kenny signalled that he was happy with their work after nearly a year in office.

Mr Kenny hinted that he would not be sacking any of his ministers and said that the public would judge his own first year as Taoiseach.

His comments come ahead of the Government marking its first year in office on Mar 9.

Following a year-end performance review, Mr Kenny said he had spoken to most of his ministers to discuss their first year in office.

“We’ve had very fruitful, bilateral discussions about the implementation of the Programme for Government, in so far as the ministers as concerned.”

He said he had redrafted the programme to determine “the actionable points” that the ministers were responsible for.

Mr Kenny said last year during the general election campaign that he would fire any ministers he thought were not doing their work.

“I’m happy with the progress being made here. Each minister is doing his or her best to measure up to the items that are in their various [portfolios],” he said yesterday.

Mr Kenny refused to rate his own performance, saying one should never ask the captain of a team to rate himself.

“My job as Taoiseach is to lead the Government,” he said. “My rating will be determined by the people.”

The Taoiseach warned before the review that there would be no excuses for ministers failing to meet targets set for their individual departments.

Every member of the Cabinet was to be brought before Mr Kenny in January, to explain their progress in meeting targets within their departments.

Mr Kenny vowed to publish the assessments by the end of March, to give the public the opportunity to judge whether each minister is up to scratch.