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LAST MAY, THE Green Party was tipped to play a crucial role in government formation. After a surge in the European and local elections, the party seemed set for a record-breaking election.
Today, the party has plenty of reasons to celebrate. It may yet get 12 seats, its best ever general election result, while both party leader Eamon Ryan and deputy leader Catherine Martin topped the poll in their constituencies.
In Carlow-Kilkenny, the party’s longest-serving councillor Malcom Noonan was elected, while in several constituencies – including Dublin Central and Waterford – the party won where it never had a TD before.
Yet the result is perhaps not what it might have beeen. Whereas the Green Party was expected to be a major beneficiary in this election, the party’s rise has been eclipsed somewhat by the remarkable surge in support for Sinn Féin.
European elections
Back in May 2019, the rise of the Green party was the story of the European and local elections. To many commentators, it was a sign that climate change had finally pushed through as a mainstream issue.
With both Ciarán Cuffe and Grace O’Sullivan winning seats, the party’s vote share jumped by nearly 9% since the last general election.
In the local elections, the party also did well – support rose by 4% since 2014, with a surge particularly notable in Dublin where the party won nearly 30 seats across the county’s councils.
The success raised hopes that the party, which lost all its seats in the 2011 election, might be on course for a historic resurgence – echoing the rise of green movements across Europe.
Those hopes were raised further when Joe O’Brien was comfortably elected in the by-election in November in Dublin Fingal.
Those hopes seemed to be reflected in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, who many predicted would start wooing the party when it came to coalition negotiations – despite some disquiet in at least one of the two big parties.
But today, the position of the Green Party in any mooted government is uncertain. The rise of Sinn Féin has overshadowed the party’s record-breaking election, with the republican party – not the Greens – now perhaps on the precipice of entering government.
It follows a campaign where climate change never dominated and according to the the exit poll, only 6% saw the issue as a priority.
Historic
Before this election, the highest number of seats the Greens ever had was six – achieving those heights in 2002 under Trevor Sargent and retaining them all in 2007.
In 2007, the party received nearly 5% of the vote. Thirteen years later, it’s risen to over 7%.
It’s a major achievement for the party, winning seats across the country from Dublin to Waterford to Carlow-Kilkenny and putting Irish Greens nearly on par with their counterparts in Germany when it comes to vote share.
The party has also shown that it can build on both local council and European elections success. Green MEP Grace O’Sullivan has her base in Waterford, while two-time councillor Patrick Costello got a seat in Dublin South Central.
Yet there might also be a sense of what could have been. The Sinn Féin surge has seen candidate surpluses disrupt several races, with transfers benefiting Solidarity-People Before Profit before the Greens.
In Mayo for instance, it was the Sinn Féin candidate who emerged to nearly top the poll, with Saoirse McHugh falling to a disappointing result despite her national profile.
And in terms of historic surges in Irish politics, the Green performance is also significantly lower than Labour’s famous ‘Spring Tide’ in 1992.
Still, by the party’s own standards it’s an impressive result. In December, Ryan said that he hoped to return at least six TDs to the Dáil after the next election – now, his party is on course to nearly double that.
In that same interview, Ryan did say that he thought a Green Party taoiseach was possible in two governments’ time. On that score, he may be disappointed today.
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I was only thinking of Ryan today as I was taxing my vehicle in the motor tax office. An increase in road tax based on engine size was the sum total of his contribution in government last time apart from when when he and FF brought the IMF to town.
@Perlum Sprite: if they enter government with SF, Mary Lou should make him junior minister for brown wheelie bins. I’d trust him with little else.
@Perlum Sprite: Polluter pays, baby. Get used to it.
@Perlum Sprite: don’t forget those fantastic NOT lightbulbs too :)
@ihcalaM: polluter doesn’t pay baby.
I have 3 vehicles. A van, a pick up truck, and a car.
The van and pickup have higher emissions, way bigger engines, yet the car tax is higher. They are far cheaper to tax.
I’m self employed so I pay less and can pollute way more, baby.
I can head to the local dump as a commercial customer and dump 3 van loads for the same price you’d dump a mattress, baby.
If polluter actually paid, they’re be no road tax, but an increase in the pump prices. THEN, polluter would actually pay, baby.?
@Perlum Sprite: Hence the new emphasis on Carbon tax, where the polluter does pay, which does affect the fuel pump prices, and is a foundation of the Green policy. You must be buzzing!
@ihcalaM: it’s over bro..
@ihcalaM: carbon tax doesn’t work. Businesses pass the cost to customers.
I could make my diesel vehicles emissions drop by 90% by converting them to run on vegetable oil – but we don’t allow that here. If customs dipped me, I’d probably end up in court or with massive fines. In the UK, everyone gets a 2,500 litre per annum allowance of veg oil.
Almost all diesel vehicles can be converted to run on veg oil, some very easily, others would cost up to 3k to convert.
But considering the average van in Ireland clocks 35k per year, it would be worth it for most.
Electric vehicles can work if we’re not burning fossil fuels to create the electricity.
Electric vehicles are useless in the commercial world as you need to tow and move weight. They can’t.
@Perlum Sprite: so trying to ban diesels by 2030 is beyond ludicrous. It cannot work.
But we can switch to plant based fuels within a year or two.
@Perlum Sprite:
Hold on now, wasn’t it the Green Party who brought in the emission based taxing of cars?
I pay €180 PER YEAR, for my car tax now. I remember paying more than that every six months!
@Mary Walshe: yeah, but only for the little people. Plus, FF were trying to get people to buy newer vehicles – thats why they backed it.
Let’s put it this way, if I drive a 2.8 TD juice guzzler van or a pick up truck that polluted 10 times what your car does, I don’t pay for it through additonal tax.
If i did, i’d pass the cost to the customer like all businesses do.
Ideally, the motor tax office should be a
remnant of the past. It’s not needed.
@ihcalaM: except the corporates.
@Perlum Sprite: And who was pushing like mad for the government to support the biofuel industry for years?
You guessed it! The Green Party.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/greens-call-for-state-cars-to-use-bio-fuels-1.1180932
However, it’s a fact that the electric car industry is now in a much more promising position to take over vs. biofuel as it stands.
Electric cars are a coherent part of a carbon neutral future, whereas biofuel powered diesels are not, though they emit less carbon (and other) emissions vs. regular diesel, it’s not zero or close to it. Electric vehicles only require burned fossil fuels to power them if your grid is supplied by those sources, whereas the long term plan is to move into off-shore wind and other renewables.
@Perlum Sprite: trouble is by the time we grow enough food to feed an ever increasing world population, we won’t have any land left to grow the veg for oil.
@Perlum Sprite: Over 70% of the cost of the Juice you’re guzzling is Tax, you’re paying alright.
My reservations on the Greens , and Eamonn in particular, is that they are basically a 1 trick pony . A single topic manifesto being Environment.
They are constantly pointing out the things they do not want. They are anti just about everything. Everything is a problem. Ban this, tax that , subsidise this.
They want you to have any fun at all.
I have never seen or heard Eamonn give a detailed plan on housing, health or transport only lovely nicey fluffy ideas.
He also will not support the long needed Cork Limerick motorway whish is a must for both cities. That alone is an alarm bell for anyone with common sense.
@Lotus: If you’d bother yourself to read their manifesto, you’d see the detailed plans, particularly on farming alternatives and public transport. Fair enough other parties have laid out more detailed plans on things like housing and healthcare, but the Greens aren’t going to be making those decisions anytime soon and they know that. Even if they’re in coalition, they’ll be angling towards climate and transport ministries, not health and housing.
@ihcalaM:
How do you reckon I hadn’t read it? I actually am holding it in my hand right now
@Lotus: If you’re holding it in your hand, go to page 9 and you’ll find their detailed plan for transport.
Happy to help!
@Lotus: Don’t forget their decriminalisation on drugs platform, and supporting a more European style of nightlife in the capital.
You’d see that if you read the thing in your hand.
@Fergus:
Yes and 20000 apprentices to retro fit housing up to modern standards. I’d like to see how that pans out seeing as the Construction sector has been struggling to get suitable trades people of any kind for the last 6/7 years at least .
@Lotus: And they’re all about guilt-tripping and penalising individuals which suits the big companies doing 90% of the polluting just fine.
@Lotus: Bull, we can get Eastern European’s in, they can lay blocks, plaster walls and build roofing too.
All we need are Irish project managers to keep an eye on them.
FFG just waited and waited hoping the market would solve everything, it wasn’t and isn’t, actually it’s making it worse and that’s why we are where we are today.
@ihcalaM: the only policy they have on farming is penalising them every way possible.
@Seamus Murphy: That is pure ignorance, I’m afraid.
@ihcalaM: is it? Not from where I’m standing. Have you seen their agriculture policies? Straight from a fairy tale book.
@Seamus Murphy: You might not think the solutions they have for our broken farming system are workable, but they’re definitely not trying to penalise them, in fact a lot of the campaign was focused on making allies of farmers.
If you think our current agricultural sector is sustainable (both economically and environmentally) then you’re the one reading fairy books.
@ihcalaM: their transport policy is vulnerable pedestrian dangerous and they know it
Do people not remember the parking levy that the Green party tried to bring in when they were in coalition? €200 per EMPLOYEE who had access to a parking spot. Imagine if that had been signed in to law, probably would be €500 now.
@Louise Tracey: loonies
@Louise Tracey: €200 a year for parking in the city centre sounds pretty sweet actually. That’s under €1 per working day for most people. Even €400 wouldn’t be too bad.
@Pseud O’Nym: what? This was a tax on an already existing parking spot. This isn’t about getting a parking spot for 400 euro a year on o Connell street, this is industrial estates all over cities- Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick & Waterford.
All I can think of when I hear Green Party is more taxes which will be a cash cows for the government, putting the normal person under more pressure with zero benefit to the environment. I believe we can do better with the environment but it should be done via taxes.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: Maybe the will present a plan to generate sufficient electricity not using fossil fuels to meet our current needs and the whole country buying EV’s as we dont have it!
Many of the Green candidates were elected on the Green wave – nothing personal- and many of the FG candidates were ousted on anti-FG / anti status quo sentiment – again nothing personal.
@Sean: I know of several who were elected on the basis of the stellar work they’ve been doing at the local level. Patrick Costello would be chief among them.
@Terrence Edwards: “stellar” -hahahahaha!
@Terrence Edwards: what stellar work except endangering pedestrians and particularly Persons With Disabilities.. Apart from that nothing special
@Gary Kearney: Endangering pedestrians by closing off streets to private cars? Not sure how that works!
Either/or, neither/nor.
Up to the last election Ryan was jetting all over the place as part if his private sector job. Sort out your own carbon footprint before you start trying to put your hand in ours till we’re all taxed to the poor house
I want to save the planet so i’m going to charge you a new NOx emmissions tax even though nitrous oxides do not contribute to global warming. i know nox emmissions are bad gor your health in jigh density conurbations with millions of people so we’re going to charge people in low density towns and villages anyway. Thanks for buying ultra low co2 euro 6 diesel cars greatly reducing our co2 footprint (you should look at Eastern Europe with a huge population with all their gas guzzlers) but hey we’re gonna tax you more anyway. Thx, a green supporter.
They got voted in as part of the “vote for change” slogan, and to keep the right wing nutters out
have your say