

Report cards on Government Ministers will not be published in the media, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

He told Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin he “shouldn’t worry about that”. The Taoiseach said it was a matter for every Minister to apply themselves “diligently” to the portfolio they had responsibility for and to ensure their elements of the programme for government “are implemented fully and with due vigour and enthusiasm to make our country great again and bring it back from the disastrous condition in which we found it”.

Mr Martin reminded the Taoiseach he had “announced to the nation” on the Late Late Show on RTÉ that he would keep report cards and “would get rid of any Minister who was not on top of the job”.

The Fianna Fáil leader asked if such report cards existed and when he would take decisions on firing Ministers as he said he would. He asked if the Taoiseach believed the Minister for Environment was doing a “fantastic job” and the Minister for Health was “doing a brilliant job”. The Minister for Justice was “clearly excelling in his capacity to isolate people with rapidity”. Mr Kenny said “the report cards will not be published in the media”.

He also said no date had been set for the referendum on Seanad abolition but he expected “a number of referenda in the autumn”. Mr Martin said the Taoiseach should at this stage be in a position to publish the proposals. Mr Kenny said there was a “really intensive line of legislation to be put through” and he had notified the Chief Justice.