Green party convention reveals what it has won and lost
Green Party negotiators have peeled off some of the layers of secrecy around the crunch coalition talks with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, revealing key wins and losses.
A zoom party convention for some 2,600 members to assess the three-way programme for government proposal lasted some eight hours.
It heard appeals for members to have courage and trust in the green deal for the country.
We now know what level of resistance the two bigger parties put up in the weeks of talks and what the Greens failed to get across the line, losses that could cost them and the country a government if less than two-thirds of party members back the deal.
The online conference gave an insight into the thinking and conclusions of deputy leader Catherine Martin, who is still set to challenge Eamon Ryan for the leadership and who initially opposed entering negotiations with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
Her overarching view is this coalition deal - with all its flaws - is a "roadmap for a green agenda" and that the party will guard its “never-say-die” fighting spirit in power.
“We will never tolerate undermining of our core principles,” she told members watching online.
That will be a shot across the bows for the other two parties, especially as she referenced the Green's “near obliteration” when they were last in government with Fianna Fáil between 2007 and 2011.
Martin conceded there were losses in seeking animal welfare protections, over housing, concerns around the land development agency and funding for the arts.
Neasa Hourigan, the party's firebrand TD who negotiated the deal but is not supporting it, revealed they had unsuccessfully pursued a wealth tax, an end to co-living and a stop to facilitating speculation in the property sector.
The party had also tried to get rent controls, a tightening of evictions and a rent register in the coalition talks.
The Greens had also tried to propose a flight tax, poverty proofing of budgets, public banking, insurance reforms and other taxes targeting the wealthier, added Ms Hourigan.
There were also losses in foreign affairs and trade.
We also heard from TD Ossian Smyth that there is no guarantee of stopping future incineration, that the M20 from Cork to Limerick may not go ahead in the next five years and even that he and the party sought decriminalisation of cannabis during the negotiations.
Will two-thirds of members back it, for the Greens to enter government?
TD Joe O'Brien pointed out in the Greens' history, this is its best chance to influence policies: “We do not know if we will have a better one.”
