Martin: I’m in the running to lead the Greens
‘She’s the one sent to ride shotgun’
CATHERINE MARTIN, the Deputy Leader of the Green Party has confirmed by letter to supporters that she will be running for the leadership of the party.
Ms Martin confirmed her decision after weeks of speculation. She also pledged that she will not begin to campaign until the last vote has been counted in any vote on whether to enter government or not.
Though a majority of the party’s TDs and Senators have declared for Eamon Ryan, Ms Martin is believed to have substantial support amongst the delegates of the party.
‘The move to Catherine is grass-roots led,’ one source said. We have, they said: ‘The support of the Young Greens, the Northern Greens, the rural Greens and the rainbow alliance of Greens.’
Significantly two senior Green powerbrokers – Hazel Chu and Neasa Hourigan – have yet to declare their hand in the leadership race.
First-time TD Ms Hourigan has emerged as the main Green enforcer in the government formation talks, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
The Dublin Central representative’s ‘forceful’ style has led to sharp exchanges between her party’s negotiators and an evolving alliance of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael on key budgetary issues.
A Fine Gael source warily observed: ‘There is no doubt that the Greens are angling for some sort of financial ministry.’
Unlike Labour, they said: ‘We won’t get away with giving them Health and Social Welfare, the Greens want to make sure they get their hands on the cash as distinct from asking for it.’
The Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael team are also struggling to deal with the very different negotiating styles of the Green delegations.’
A Government source said: ‘Neasa is definitely the enforcer. She is the one that is sent in to ride shotgun.’
But an admiring Green warned: ‘She is the disruptor. Paschal [Donohoe] and Michael McGrath were getting on far too well. They were having it far too easy. They are not having it that way anymore. There are no more austerity parties in that department.’
The Government source said: ‘By contrast Martin sits there like the Sphinx. She rarely says anything. It is almost more unnerving than Hourigan.’
Commenting on the other key Green figures, they said: ‘Eamon is the nice cop, but he has no authority and the other fellow, what’s his name, Ossian, he is Mr Invisible.’
Although Ms Hourigan has been reserved in her public commentary, sources from both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have stressed that negotiations about the future direction of the economy have been the sharpest.
A senior source said: ‘There have been really sharp exchanges between Paschal and Michael McGrath and the Greens.’
Another informed source said: ‘The Greens have been looking for budgetary figures and poor Paschal has been tearing his hair out saying he doesn’t know what will happen in the next six weeks, let alone the next six months.’
One source said: ‘It would help… negotiations if the Greens didn’t bring in stray councillors who don’t agree with their party’s policies let alone ours.’