Wednesday was a big day. There were about 800 of us in the Mansion House to debate the motion that we would support the Programme for Government (PFG) that Dan, John and Donal had negotiated with Fianna Fail.
As Deputy Chair of the Green Party National Council, I had the honour of chairing the debate. To be honest, I expected that it would be very fraught and divisive. In actual fact, it turned out to be the easiest Green Party debate I have ever chaired. That’s not to say there wasn’t strong feelings on both sides of the argument. But everyone in the room realised the importance of the discussion and there was no heckling or interruption of speakers.
Like the vast majority of fellow party members, I voted in favour of the agreement. The deal did not go as far as I would have liked in many areas. However, considering our party have only 6 seats in the Dail, we have had a large proportion of our Election 2007 Manifesto implemented. Our two Ministers, John Gormley and Eamon Ryan are ready for the challenges of government and we believe that the Green Party’s influence will be felt throughout all the different departments.
We have achieved a number of key commitments as part of the PFG. We have had major success regarding global warming, with a new target of a 3% annual reduction of carbon emissions each year and a new process by which on Budget Day, the Government must report on what progress has been made in reaching this target. For the first time, Ireland can be seen to be getting serious about tackling global warming.
We have secured an extra €350 million investment in education each year over the term of the government. I’m also delighted to see a number of innovations regarding planning for new schools – a number of these are outlined here.
The Noise Bill that the new government will introduce will enable householders take effective action to deal with noisy neighbours. During the election, this issue came up regularly on the doorsteps. Further, the many problems faced by householders in Dublin 15 due to management companies will be tackled through new legislation to regulate this area. We have also secured a major package of €100 million for wall and attic insulation which will allow householder cut their heating bills and reduce carbon emissions.
The deal certainly contains some disappointments on areas like Shannon and co-location. On a local level, despite major efforts from our negotiating team, we were unable to convince Fianna Fail to drop their plans to relocate Mountjoy Prison and the Central Mental Hospital to the site at Thornton Hall. Nevertheless, I look forward to working with our two Green Party Ministers to ensure the policies that will benefit the people of the Dublin 15 area and the country will be implemented over the next 5 years.
Your so-called achievements are worthless compared to the political capital you’ve lost with the electorate. People tend to remember being double-crossed.
Shame on you.
Paddy,
Political capital isn’t something that has any value in itself.
Political capital is only useful if you use it to achieve something.
The electorate will make their minds up in 5 years time if we have been successful enough in government to warrent being re-elected.
Roderic
Cool.
Cool…