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The Green Party started last week on a high with the publication of the Climate Action Bill, its most notable achievement since entering Government. But its senior members then managed to overshadow their own good work with an internal squabble that could do serious damage to the party’s credibility. Leader Eamon Ryan had some grounds for boasting on Tuesday that the Climate Action Bill, with its legally binding carbon emissions targets, was the most ambitious of its kind in the world. However, he got a rude reality check when a number of his colleagues defied him on the issue of tactics for a forthcoming Seanad byelection.
The climate Bill is a vindication of the party’s decision to go into government as there is no doubt the legislation would not have been nearly as far-reaching if they were not part of the Coalition. It is no secret that the Greens had to work hard to convince Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil to accept some of the Bill’s more robust provisions but that is only the first step in the process. On the Opposition side of the Dáil, Sinn Féin and the smaller left-wing parties have been adamantly opposed to carbon taxes. A significant increase in such taxes will have to be central to future budgets if there is to be any prospect of achieving the legal targets.
That is why it is so disappointing that the party has descended into petty internal squabbling that could threaten not only its future in government but the achievement of its objectives in the longer term. Whoever is in power in the decade ahead will face huge political difficulties in implementing some of the more challenging targets and without the Greens in office to insist on implementation they could easily fall by the wayside.
The most damaging aspect of the row which has erupted over the party’s Dublin Lord Mayor Hazel Chu defying the leadership to contest a forthcoming Seanad byelection is that it appears not to be about any matter of policy or principle but rooted in internal political manoeuvring. The support given to Chu by party deputy leader Catherine Martin has elevated the row into a threat to Ryan’s leadership.
The episode has turned into a soap opera that threatens to do real damage. The reality is that the Greens have performed well in government and even before the climate Bill was published last week could point to serious progress on important issues under their control. Among these are steps towards ending direct provision which, under a Green minister, is a goal closer to being realised than ever before.
As the Greens should know better than most, if they are to avoid the fate they shared previously with other smaller coalition parties – when they were hammered by voters for serving in office – they need to show unity and a common purpose and spend more time talking about their very real accomplishments.