Biggest threat to the Greens is from within
The Green Party is full of wobbly doubters disillusioned with the leadership’s failure to hold on to core values, writes
THERE is a wild rumour travelling the corridors of Leinster House that the Greens are in Government. Worse still, those spreading it are insisting that they hold three Cabinet posts.
It can’t be true. Last week I took a straw poll of former politicians and family members. I asked half a dozen of them to name the Green Minister for Children. None could do it. One got as far as identifying the forgettable Roderic O’Gorman as “Gorman”. All the others gave up.
Luckily for the Greens, the public don’t seem to notice that they are hanging in there either. The Green Party’s poll numbers are tanking, currently languishing around 3-4pc despite their reasonable claims to have made breakthroughs on the climate change agenda.
It is hard to know whether their abysmal ratings are due to the endless internal squabbles, the consistent cock-ups or just a general belief that they are bystanders, irrelevant in the real crises afflicting Ireland, namely Covid, Brexit, finance and education.
When it comes to Covid, the Greens are strangely invisible. Leader Eamon Ryan manages an escapade a week on other matters of little national significance compared with the Covid nightmare.
Last week it was a bizarre appointment to a key aviation job that caused minor mayhem. On Tuesday afternoon, Eamon’s crew proudly issued a press release: after a fivemonth search, the minister was appointing a new chair of the Shannon Group. At 4pm Aaron Forde, the big hope for the future, was the greatest thing since fried bread.
By 9pm, Aaron was toast. INM journalist Philip Ryan had discovered some toxic tweets sent out by the bright new broom. Eamon issued another press release: his chosen saviour of Shannon had feet of clay. What sort of cavalier procedure is Eamon using when selecting his key semi-State team? A few weeks ago, he appointed Rose Hynes to the chair of the Irish Airport Authority without a rigid process. Last week he selected
Aaron, the shortest-serving semi-State chair ever.
Aaron had publicly tweeted some unforgivably offensive remarks about Travellers. Eamon didn’t even know. Aaron had also publicly criticised Leo Varadkar, calling him a “narcissist”. Another tweet claimed the Greens were “clueless about agriculture, climate and lots of other issues”.
Unaware, Eamon and junior minister Hildegarde Naughton had earlier met Aaron and enthusiastically given him the go-ahead. Why Eamon and Hildegarde didn’t know about the tweets is a fair question. Aaron is a loose cannon. He has put some despicable views on Travellers on the record. A totally unsuitable candidate was picked out of a field of 17 for a top job in an important industry on its uppers. The background checks must have been derisory.
Two weeks ago, Eamon was forced into an equally humiliating U-turn. He cancelled a €58m road project in Moyross, Limerick. Local Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea went into orbit. Eamon was upbraided by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and was compelled to reverse the decision. The road will go ahead. Most alarming was the Green leader’s insensitivity to the needs of the people of Moyross, a disadvantaged area. He was willing to make them collateral damage in an anti-road crusade. Ryan may be no radical, but he is a humane individual. So the Green leadership’s consistent lack of empathy with the less well-off was surprising. It reared its ugly head again last Wednesday when Eamon revealed another shock initiative, outside the Programme for Government (PFG). He was pursuing his worthy, clean-air agenda, but considering banning all solid fuels including peat, turf and wood. This time, Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen, Timmy Dooley and Dara Calleary bristled at what they saw as an ultimatum. Where was this item in the PFG? They pointed out that the poor would again suffer. Expect another climbdown.
The Green leader may offend Government backbenchers, but he is careful to remain on good terms with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaders.
However, he is approaching civil war with many Green councillors and some TDs.
He has lost a serious number of councillors, including the Green leader on South Dublin County Council Liam Sinclair, Lorna Bogue from Cork and chair of the young Greens, Tara Gilsenan. While their departure reduces the danger of a coup d’état, it means that many of the idealists are leaving behind a less energised party dominated by the old guard.
Some of Eamon’s opponents are sticking inside the tent. His resistance to the onward march of the redoubtable Lord Mayor of Dublin, Hazel Chu, could be his undoing. Chu took 33pc of the votes in the 2019 local elections from a ward in Eamon’s Dáil territory. She immediately became a prospect for a second Green seat in the 2020 general election, a dream team with Ryan as her running mate. Eamon blocked her. He again blocked her for the Seanad elections. His determination to protect his patch from talented colleagues is familiar old-style politics.
A few weeks ago, another crisis emerged. Green grassroots were incensed about a looming issue. The Government seemed poised to sign a deal known as Ceta (Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement). Green opponents say Ceta allows large corporations to sue countries if local regulations hinder those companies’ ability to trade. Apparently, the issue is a Green party red line. A rebellion broke out.
The refreshingly honest Green TD Neasa Hourigan, opposed it, as did others. The problem was temporarily shelved by referring it to the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs. An internal eruption has been avoided, but only temporarily.
Eamon Ryan is embedding himself into the apparatus of Government, but he could lose his flock in the process. The parliamentary party is full of wobbly doubters, disillusioned with his failure to hold on to core values on the Palestinian question and Ceta. In Cabinet, happily for his arch-rival deputy leader Catherine Martin, there are tales that she at least has raised issues like the massive increases in the salary proposed for the Secretary of the Department of Health, but her worries have been mostly ignored.
After their bruising leadership contest last year, her party leader seems closer to Micheál Martin than to herself. His current performance in Martin’s Cabinet has echoes of his last participation in a Fianna Fáil-led coalition when he is believed to have been under the spell of the late Brian Lenihan. It is often forgotten that Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan soldiered together in the past. They are the sole survivors of the cabinets of Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.
Back in those days, Eamon, the enlightened environmentalist, drove a 2003 Volkswagen Caravelle 2.5 litre diesel van. He has promised to trade it in for an electric vehicle, but somehow hasn’t managed to buy one. Meanwhile, the Green leader continues to make his daily cycle straight into the cameras at Leinster House.
‘Ryan’s resistance to the onward march of the redoubtable Lord Mayor of Dublin, Hazel Chu, could be his undoing’