After one year in office, the Taoiseach and Tanaiste claim to have fulfilled more than two-thirds of the Government's objectives, or "concrete progress towards implementation is ongoing."
In a 29-page progress report, published yesterday at the end of their first year in office, Mr Ahern and Ms Harney said that while most governments "get honeymoons" when they come into office, this Coalition did not.
Claiming to have addressed "head-on" the important issues facing the country, the Taoiseach and Tanaiste said in a joint preface to the report that they would "continue to work hard and work well as a united Government".
The Government's "action programme for the millennium" contains 258 "substantive key objectives and action points" under 35 different headings. Its report lists achievements to date and outlines what it intends to achieve.
Maintaining and developing the peace process remained at the top of its political priority list.
Drugs and crime had become key priorities before the Coalition came to office in June 1997, and the Government promised to have 12,000 gardai by 2002. Current strength was approximately 11,000 and, because of ongoing wastage, an estimated 2,200 gardai would be needed to meet the target.
A programme of accelerated recruitment that began in January would be repeated in 1999, the report said. It also predicted that the Criminal Justice (Fraud Offences) Bill, currently being drafted, would significantly strengthen the law on white-collar crime.
The "general scheme" for a Prisons Service Bill was also under preparation. To be introduced in 1999, it would provide for the establishment of an independent parole and remissions board and for an independent prisons inspectorate.
Under the heading "Inclusive society", the report said that legislation to allow for a national minimum wage would be introduced next year. Discussions on the minimum wage are to take place with the social partners next month.
The report cites the fall of 25,000 in unemployment figures during the past year as one of the great achievements.
Outlining the reductions in personal income tax and PRSI in the last Budget, the report said that the taxation and social exclusion commitments of Partnership 2000 were achieved in two years, a year earlier than expected. The question of introducing tax allowances for carers and child care was being examined in the context of the next Budget.
Among the other achievements sketched in the report are the negotiations on an Employee Share Ownership Plan in Telecom Eireann, concluded in March, and the proposals on a new light rail network for Dublin.
Bringing the Amsterdam Treaty into force is also seen as among the major achievements of Government. Ireland is a candidate for membership of the UN Security Council in 2001-2002.