FG blames Greens for rural collapse

Coalition at risk amid claims Fine Gael has been made the fall guy for energy prices

AS they struggle in the polls, Fine Gael have turned on their ‘aggressive’ Green Coalition partner amid growing fears the party could lose up to 12 rural seats.

Party sources who spoke to the Irish Mail on Sunday this weekend said they fear Fine Gael is becoming the smaller party’s ‘political mudguard’ when it comes to high energy prices.

Tensions have also been elevated by the apparent willingness of the Greens to tweak the tail of their Coalition partners in planning reforms and stalled road

‘We are getting the blame for the Greens’

projects. In an indication of the level of estrangement, Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and his TDs have incurred the public wrath of four former Fine Gael ministers.

Former rural affairs minister Michael Ring told the MoS: ‘The Green Party of 12 TDs are seen in rural Ireland as running the country and we are getting the blame for allowing them.’

The Mayo TD also warned he would have difficulties supporting the Government in certain circumstances.

He said of the decision to go into coalition with the Greens: ‘I told them, I voted against it. We should never have gone into government.

‘There is no doubt about it – we are losing voters because of the Greens.’

Mr Ring also warned of the proposed carbon tax increases in May: ‘They can forget about their carbon taxes; the public are already furious. An old-age pensioner told me she bought three bales of briquettes and the carbon taxes added 70 cents to each one. People are feeling it.’

Former local government junior minister John Paul Phelan, who previously said Eamon Ryan ‘doesn’t have any understanding of rural Ireland or anything outside the Pale’, told he MoS: ‘The Greens are running the show. It looks as though they are running the Government. They are marking their territory out in the postcoronavirus landscape, and we are in danger of becoming the mudguard.’

The Carlow-Kilkenny TD was particularly critical of Green Party opposition to plans by Fine Gael Junior Planning Minister Peter Burke to reform Ireland’s antiquated planning laws.

Mr Burke, with the strong support of Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, believes housing delivery could be accelerated by a crackdown on what he has described as an ‘industry’ of judicial reviews.

Deputy Phelan said: ‘The Peter Burke row is very serious. There is a Government commitment to do this [planning reform], the Housing Minister has asked for this. The country is crying out for it.’ Mr Phelan also slammed the recent controversial leaflet by Green Junior Rural Minister Joe O’Brien opposing a new social and affordable housing scheme.

Another Fine Gael minister has also criticised what they described as the Green Party’s ‘aggressive’ positioning on planning.

The Cabinet member told the MoS: ‘Who would have thought there would be such aggression in trying to implement a Programme for Government commitment?’

The solo run by Eamon Ryan on the controversial closure of the historic Cathal Brugha Barracks in Dublin has also incurred the anger

of Fine Gael. Former defence minister Paul Kehoe accused the Green Party leader of a ‘sleight of hand’.

Former justice minister Charlie Flanagan added: ‘Eamon Ryan has a very important multifaceted portfolio.

‘I, however, take my cue on defence issues from the Minister for Defence. I am sure Eamon now understands he was speaking out of line,’ he said. Mr Ryan’s opposition to the Shannon LNG (liquefied natural gas) pipeline has also drawn the ire of Fine Gael.

Cork-based FG Senator Tim Lombard told the MoS: ‘They are against everything. If we don’t have gas, what are we going to be running electricity off? Thin air?’

Mr Lombard also slammed the Greens’ agriculture positioning, saying: ‘Between wanting to ban baby formula milk and wanting the

‘What will we run our electricity off? Thin air?’

dairy herd cut, they will be the ruination of rural Ireland.’

Unease is also high within Fine Gael over Mr Ryan’s commitment to a series of critical roadbypasses.

These include: the N4 to Sligo; the N24 from Waterford to Limerick; the M25 Waterford bypass; the junction on the N11 between Bray and Greystones in Co. Wicklow.

One senior FG party source told the MoS: ‘People will walk away from the whip over these roads if it emerges that Ryan is putting a spoke in the wheel.’

A fifth former Fine Gael minister, Joe McHugh, who is also dealing with the ongoing fall-out of the mica crisis, expressed concern over the planned bypass between Lifford and Letterkenny in his home constituency of Donegal.

He warned: ‘This has to get the green light. We are the only outstanding gap connecting the whole of the island. I expect no delays; we don’t have rail and a proper road – we are an island within an island.’

One minister said of the Greens’ opposition to new roads: ‘They are utter ideologues who will be chased out by the electorate in the next election. Our job is to make sure we don’t go down with them.’

Another senior party figure added: ‘The over-mighty nature of them [the Greens] is astonishing.

‘A party with 12 seats wants to rule rural Ireland.

‘We are the soldiers; they are the generals. The problem is we are the ones who are going to get shot,’ the source said.

Rural Fine Gael backbenchers are especially concerned about the consequences they will feel from their dwindling support.

One senior party figure warned: ‘These Greens are accentuating the harm done to us by [former transport minister Shane] Ross.

‘There is a recognition we are in trouble in rural Ireland.

‘What, unfortunately, is missing is any ideas as to how we might reverse the process,’ they said.

‘Job is to make sure we don’t go down with them’