The Green Party’s leader claimed that the two major coalition partners offered them “no favours,” but he has “no regrets” about joining a three-party administration in 2020.
On the day when Roderic O’Gorman was speaking, eleven of his party members lost their seats in the Dáil.
Regarding criticism of his party by their former government partners, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, during this year’s election campaigns, he commented, “That’s politics.”
He said that in the counts, “very few transfers” from either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil went to Green candidates.
“I don’t think they did us any favours, but I wasn’t expecting them to do us favours. We have a very distinct political philosophy from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, it is harder to see the difference between those two parties, and I think if they go into government again, which looks likely, the difference is more and more difficult to see. We were very different, we took the risk of going in with them, we were able to deliver, but there are political consequences for taking the risk and we suffered them over this weekend,” he said at the count centre in Phibblestown, reports RTE.
The TD for Dublin West expressed that “clearly, it’s been a tremendously disappointing day” as the party faced near-total defeat at the Dáil level for the second time recently.
With former party leader and prominent figure Eamon Ryan not contesting this election, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin was the most notable Green TD to lose their seat, reports RTE.
A group of three junior ministers also faced defeats – Joe O’Brien, Ossian Smyth, and Malcolm Noonan – along with six other party representatives.
Green Party to enter ‘rebuild mode’
Vowing to revitalize the party in the coming years, Mr. O’Gorman stated they would transition into “rebuild mode” starting next week.
He mentioned that his experience in regaining support for the party after the 2011 general election, when it had no TDs, would be beneficial and affirmed his decision to remain as leader, reports RTE.
“If someone had told me, after casting my vote for the programme for government in 2020, that this would be the outcome, I would do it all over again; it’s absolutely worth it. There’s been a price to pay, but that’s the nature of politics. We don’t engage in politics merely to acquire and retain seats without taking action. You earn political capital and you utilize it, and we have done so in the past four-and-a-half years,” reports RTE.
When asked how the party would restructure to prevent another significant electoral defeat, Mr. O’Gorman replied: “The only way a small party can protect itself from the risk of entering government is to simply avoid entering government.”
He extended good wishes to Labour and the Social Democrats in any potential future government discussions as a junior partner, encouraging them to leverage their mandates “to advance progressive politics.”
Citing his party’s accomplishments, Mr. O’Gorman mentioned they established legally binding climate targets, lowered emissions to their lowest levels in three decades, made significant investments in public transport, and reduced childcare costs by half, reports RTE.
He expressed concerns regarding whether some Green policies would be upheld by the next government, particularly the commitment to transport investment.
“If we observe the upcoming government attempting to backtrack on some essential Green Party policies, I will use whatever platform I have to highlight that and oppose it,” he added, reports RTE.
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