Tag Archives: Green Party

Tony Killeen, who served in several ministerial positions in a Fianna Fáil/ Green Party / Progressive Democrat Party Government is confident that the incoming tri-party coalition administration can succeed. Stating it is time to put 100 years of Civil War politics behind us, he said, “I believe that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party can provide a solid platform for Ireland to recover and grow from the Covid-19 setback. “To have formed a national government would have been disastrous for the country; nothing would be done, and it would probably have lasted 18 months at most. From the outset the partners would have been preparing for an inevitable general election.” Mr Killeen, who served as Minister for Defence for a year up to his retirement from politics in 2011 for health reasons, was also a Minister of State in Forestry and Fisheries, as well as Environment and Energy, so has a good understanding of the Greens stance on …

CLARE County Councillor Róisín Garvey was in Dublin last Thursday, as part of a Green party group working on the preparation of a programme for Government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The three-person Green team at the talks also included Deputies Malcolm Noonan and Marc Ó Cathasaigh. Fine Gael were represented by Simon Coveney, Michael Ring and Hildegard Naughton and Fianna Fáil’s team consisted of Dara Calleary and Anne Rabbitte. “Fianna Fáil were quite passive, I would say. Their document was quite light. There was very little content in it, whereas Fine Gael and the Greens had very substantial documents. It was only a two-hour meeting. I’d like to have seen another two-hour meeting but what happens is that it is done over emails,” she said. “While we were in the room, we got to dictate wording. for instance, 20% remote working. Fine Gael wanted it to be an ultimate target but I argued with Simon Coveney that it …

A majority of Clare Fine Gael councillors support the current proposed national coalition of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, according to the findings of a Clare Champion survey. Councillor Gabriel Keating said efforts should have been made to form a national government made up of a number of political parties last March. Stressing the need for a new government to be elected as quickly as possible, he is a little reluctant to give his full support for a Fianna Fáil (FF), Fine Gael (FG) and Green Party (GP) coalition as he doesn’t think this will be good for rural Ireland. Instead, he supports a coalition of these parties with Labour and a group of rural Independents like Michael McNamara, which he feels would be better able to deal with these challenging times. Councillor Johnny Flynn said he would not vote for any coalition deal with Fine Gael and Sinn Féin as he disagreed with some of their …

CLARE’s Independent TD has described his talks on supporting a Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil coalition as “constructive”, but said he believes the parties’ preferred option is to have the Greens on-board, reducing the requirement for non-party deputies. Deputy Michael McNamara met a negotiating team for two hours last Monday, alongside fellow Independents Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim) and Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway), and said that while the encounter was worthwhile, it didn’t constitute “meaningful negotiations”. “The talks were constructive, but I wouldn’t say there was any great level of engagement on either said,” he said. “The very clear preference is to get the Greens on board, alongside a few Independents bolted on for added stability.” The three rural Independents presented a joint document and reviewed the framework document drawn up by the parties. Deputy McNamara stressed, however, that that he would be working independently for this constituency. “Everything I do is based on what’s best for Clare, even though we met as a team,” …

The Green Party has published legislation, which will be debated and voted on in the Seanad on Wednesday, aimed at tackling vacancy and dereliction in city and town centres. This is an issue that has been discussed on numeroous occasions in County Clare where such problesm exists in a number of towns, large and small. The Derelict and Vacant Sites Bill 2017 aims to increase the levies on vacant sites from 3% per annum to 5%, to bring forward the date from which they apply from 2019 to mid-2017, and to include all sites under the legislation, as currently sites under 500m2 are exempt. Speaking ahead of the debate in the Seanad, Green Party Senator Grace O’Sullivan said,“We are bringing this legislation to tackle what we see as fundamental flaws in the Government’s approach to vacancy and dereliction in our town and city centres. Throughout the country, in our villages, towns and cities, we are seeing countless examples of underutilisation …

WORK being carried out to develop a hydroelectric system at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon will not interfere with the long-term welfare of the renowned cascades that front the hotel, according to a Clare Green Party member. Work is ongoing to complete the project, which was given planning permission by Clare County Council. “It looks terrible at the moment but the hotel depends on that scenic view more than any other business in the town and, long term, it will be fine. The hotel is one of the greenest in Ireland. They have bees, an orchard and they grow organic food and now they’ll have hydro-power. Then the hotel will be run on hydro-power completely and as long as the falls go back to looking the way they did before, I have no issue. One of the main stipulations of planning is that long term it will go back to looking the way it did before,” said Róisín Garvey of …

MOYHILL Community Garden finished second in the Sustainable Community section of the 2015 Get Involved Community Award presentation ceremony, which was held in Dublin last week. Now in its third year, the Local Ireland Get Involved Sustainable Communities awards initiative is promoted by 51 weekly paid-for newspapers and this year’s initiative featured 30 projects from all over Ireland. The projects cover the essential areas necessary to build sustainable communities, including clean energy, water conservation, local food production, eco-tourism and developing local community employment. The North Clare-based group was also highly commended in the Community Impact section. In their presentation, the group told the gathering at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Blanchardstown that they had visited Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the UK in an effort to establish their own one. Green Party General Election candidate, Fergal Smith heads up the Moyhill group and he told The Clare Champion that reaching the national final was a positive experience for them. “Local …

With General Election 2016 polling day fast approaching, Thinkhouse, the youth communications agency, has published highlights of an in-depth study around ‘Youth + Politics’ in Ireland today. The research was conducted by The Youth Lab, Thinkhouse’s insights and trends division, and it reveals the views, attitudes and influential factors that will shape how today’s 18-35 year olds respond to the forthcoming election. Following are some of the key findings: Young people more active than ever On the back of a successful Marriage Equality Referendum campaign last year, young voters are more engaged than ever. 92% of those surveyed are registered to vote, with 83% saying they plan to vote in the upcoming election on 26th February. This projection would be a huge increase on the 70% turnout figures for the 2011 General Election. Lack of true leadership in political parties When asked which of the party leaders they liked best, the vast majority (45%) reported that they did ‘not like …