Green Party and Fianna Fáil clash over 'difference in mentality' on climate change

The parties sat down for a second day of talks on Thursday, receiving advise from senior civil servants from the Department of Finance and Public Expenditure.

However, the addition of the senior civil servants appeared to sour the mood.

One senior Fianna Fáil source said: "DPER [Department of Public Expenditure and Reform]came in and were talking about all the good work they had done, and all the roads they had built — the Greens don't want to hear about roads. It felt like we were at school and the teacher had come in and given us a dose of reality, saying to us 'Your plans are all well and good but here's what you can actually do with the money'."

Party leaders Eamon Ryan and Micheál Martin were both present at the meeting and "on the same page" when it came to conducting government. But sources say a difference in mentality is becoming apparent to the Green Party.

Green Party figures say that there is an obvious gap between the two on how to allocate funding. The source said: "The feeling from the discussions is that whenever we're discussing an issue that needs funding to prevent further costs incurred by climate change, they're constantly asking, 'Where are you going to find the money?'."

"Issues like shutting bogs and public transport that need funding to offset climate crisis and further fines when we don't hit emissions targets, there's a difference in how we approach these topics."

Eamon Ryan, speaking to RTÉ, said there are many questions going unanswered: "They say they want to cut emissions in half the next decade, but they have no indication as to either how they do it or how they fund it. They haven't actually indicated how would you actually go about doing it, and there's nothing in their manifestos to show or how they would finance it. And that's some of the questions we are asking them, and trying to share our best thinking as well. Unless those questions can be answered, I don't think anything will happen.

Elsewhere, Fianna Fáil has confirmed it is "open to looking at" what other parties have to say about rent freezes but will not do a U-turn and back such a policy.

Housing spokesman, Darragh O'Brien, confirmed that conversations around rent freezes took place with the Greens: “The issues of rents and how we can help renters obviously came up. As part of that discussion, rent freezes were mentioned. There was no further discussion on it with regard to any changes.”

Fianna Fáil will now share its legal advice against rent freezes with the Greens.