Leadership has not been the strong suit of Northern Ireland's political class, tending to be behind the curve in moving away from sectarianism and seeing policy issues through the distorting lens of the ethnic power balance.

They are not helped by the structure of the devolved government, with power carved out along communal lines and 12 departments vying for power as autonomous fiefdoms.

So the programme, while listing endless targets and aspirations, contains little by way of significant policy initiatives. There are references to a raft of pre-existing strategies and proposals for several more, but none of these are elaborated.

The whole point of devolution is so that Northern Ireland's elected representatives can legislate to do things according to democratic regional preferences.

Yet apart from long-delayed initiatives linked to the reform of public administration initiated in 2002, the only legislation proposed for the coming three years is on outlawing age discrimination in goods and services (which should also have been wrapped up in an earlier single Equality Bill), levying a charge on plastic bags and improving access to justice - as well as reducing corporation tax, if Westminster were to agree.

The last programme, agreed in 2008, declared the economy to be the Executive's priority. But no actual economic policy emerged until last week, when Arlene Foster, published a new draft policy alongside the draft programme.

And the programme contains big gaps. There is no mention of the deadlock on the 11-Plus, condemning more parents and teachers and yet more cohorts of primary schoolchildren to the chaos of the unregulated tests.

Nor has the Executive been willing to face up to the need to charge for water - charges are to be deferred for another three years.

This in spite of the clear proposal, commissioned back in 2007, from Professor Paddy Hillyard, Northern Ireland's poverty expert, for the element of the cost of water not currently covered by the regional rate to be added to it, thus ensuring (roughly) the best-off would pay most. Deferral costs the Executive £200m a year.

Part of that could fund the Green New Deal programme, agreed by the trade unions, the employers and the voluntary sector.

Focusing on investment in a major programme of retrofitting of homes and investment in green technologies to modernise the economy would have the multiple benefits of creating large numbers of 'green-collar' jobs, tackling fuel poverty and reducing the region's greenhouse gas emissions. The Executive continues to argue, in its draft economic strategy, that what will turn the trick is reduced corporation tax.

This in spite of the evidence of a survey of firms in the Republic over a decade ago by the development agency, Forfas, which showed workforce skills and competences were more important for inward investors, and recognition by Invest NI that this remains the principal barrier north of the border too.

The Executive is still thinking in the age of industrial capitalism, when access to capital was indeed critical, whereas we live in an era of 'informational' capitalism, when it is human resources that are key to the knowledge economy.

Were the Treasury to accept the Executive's plea, it would represent a further dramatic blow to the devolved Budget, estimated at around £300m.

This self-imposed stringency is compounded by the failure, thirdly, of the Executive to tac- kle the inefficiencies and costs arising from sectarianism - estimated in a report commissioned under direct rule, which the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister sought to suppress in 2007, at up to £1.5bn a year.

The only reference in the draft programme is to a pledge by 2015 to "substantially increase" the number of existing schools sharing facilities - but not to integrate education as such, in spite of clear popular support, as manifested in repeated attitudes surveys.

The programme pledges one year of pre-school education for all children. Yet it is universal access to professional childcare - including learning through play - which is the foundation of the prosperity, social comfort and relative equality characterising the Scandinavian countries, widely recognised as the most desirable societies to emulate.

A 'childcare strategy' is one of the many undefined proposals identified in the draft - but with only a risible additional £3m per year attached.