Greens back young home buyers and farmers as Eamon Ryan open to coalition options
Green leader Eamon Ryan has promised to prioritise supports for young house buyers and farmers instead of tax cuts for workers if his party enters government after the general election.
An army of bulldozers to turn peat bogs into carbon sinks and clusters of windfarms around Irish waters are also needed to help reduce Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
Mr Ryan attacked the Government’s spending on roads, and said Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring was “trying to outdo” Pádraig Flynn by spending €250m on a Mayo road.
In an interview with the , the Green leader said he was open to coalition options with all parties, especially on climate change, even ones who had stolen the party’s clothes or ideas.
“I would take them [the clothes] off tomorrow and give them to them and I’d have another set or suit ready to go. We have 40 years headstart on other parties on this. We have real experience and so much leadership is needed that I have no problem whatsoever if all the parties start to ramp up their ambitions.
And we will work with them and others to go further because people don’t realise the scale of the change is so huge.
The Greens would demand at least two seats at Cabinet and would only enter government with a minimum six TDs elected. More TDs elected would see the need for more ministerial roles.
Ahead of the general election which is expected in April or May, Mr Ryan revealed the Greens’ radical proposals to reduce emissions, to improve public transport and supports for rural Ireland. These include:
- Raising our carbon emission reduction target from 30% to 50% by 2030, to make the country a leader rather than a laggard on climate change
- Paying farmers to man an army of bulldozers to re-wet peat bogs and turn them into giant carbon sinks. Peat extraction makes up at least 6m of 60m in carbon tonnes emitted annually
- Building windfarms in the Irish Sea to generate five gigawatts of electricity —enough to power the country. Windfarms in the Atlantic and Celtic Sea to generate tens of gigawatts to export
- Overhaul the 50 major roads in planning or construction to address the shortage of public transport
- Alter business rules so petrol stations must have electric vehicle charge points on site. Increase parking fees/regulate space, but hold off on a city congestion charge for car users
- A State-backed retrofitting loan scheme to help insulate 50,000 houses yearly
- Supports for young house buyers and young farmers in lieu of tax cuts for workers
While the Greens are viewed by some as anti- farming, Mr Ryan said he expects that farmers will be paid handsomely to help reduce carbon emissions.
“We [Ireland] currently have a target of 30% emissions’ reductions by 2030. And we’ve all sorts of get-out clauses even within that. We have to expect that to rise to something like 50%- plus because that’s what the EU’s going to raise its ambition to.
“So what we need is an army of bulldozers diggers to block the drains that have been put in over the last 50 to 100 years to rebuild our bogs and in rewetting them, store carbon instead of releasing it.
It’s farmers with skills and with diggers who are going to do that.
"They will get paid farming carbon. And that’s coming. It’s coming in the CAP reform, but it’s coming in the climate talks.”
Above all, financial supports for young farmers and house buyers would trump tax cuts, he said:
“Are we offering tax cuts or are we offering a future for young Irish farmers as well as young Irish urban people who want to get a house to live? Of those two, it’s young farmers having an income that they can be sure of and young urban people knowing that they will be able to get a home are what we need to invest in.”
