Government report card: High on taxes, soft on drugs

With two spectacular cock-ups seeing drugs temporally legalised, and heterosexual marriage nearly outlawed, it was perhaps not the best day for this unlucky and unloved Government to celebrate its fourth anniversary in power, writes Shaun Connolly.

To be fair, the section of drugs legislation struck down by judges dates to 1977, but how fitting that mind-altering substances suddenly became legal to consume just as the Taoiseach and Tánaiste tried to make us all believe we had lived through four years of political ecstasy.

However, in an information vacuum that would make drugs outreach workers rage, the 88-page annual report produced to mark the rollercoaster trip of this government since March 2011 was all about the glorious highs and none of the dangerous lows involved in mainlining the Coalition’s easy promises.