There has been “a constant conflict” within the Government when it comes to introducing more ambitious approaches to climate action, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has said.
The Minister for Children said it was a conflict that has been “managed” to date with the three parties “able to work to get resolutions”.
Speaking as he announced Senator Pauline O’Reilly as the Green Party’s Director of Elections for the forthcoming general election on Tuesday, Mr O’Gorman said he assumed the public would go to the polls on November 29th.
Mr O’Gorman said his party was open to going back into Government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil and hadn’t “ruled any party out”.
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The Green Party leader also said his preference would be to publish the revised housing targets before the election and he would like to see 53,000 units being built per year.
Mr O’Gorman outlined his party’s record in Government over the last four years and said that putting in place “an ambitious climate law” and introducing measures such as making public transport more affordable and grants for retrofitting “hasn’t been easy”.
“Every step of that, there’s been conflict,” he said. “There’s been conflict within Government ... There has always been conflict in this Government.
“It’s conflict that has been managed. We’ve been able to work and get resolutions, but there has been a constant conflict in terms of seeking to always have more ambitious approaches to meeting our climate targets.
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“We’ve delivered those with the lowest level of carbon emissions in the last 30 years at the same time that our economy is growing, but that’s because the Green Party were in Government, and if we’re not in Government, that focus won’t exist.”
Mr O’Gorman said his party’s priorities in any future Government would be to increase the level of leave available to parents during a child’s first year, introduce a public model of childcare, continue to cut carbon emissions and ensure that half of the Apple tax fund is invested in public transport.
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Senator O’Reilly said being in Government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil had meant “pushing really hard two parties in order to get everything that we could”.
“Emissions went down by 7 per cent last year. That wouldn’t have happened without the Green Party in Government,” she said. “That’s what we want to do again, get back in to make sure that we hit our targets.”
Senator O’Reilly said that the Green Party had “stuck our elbows out” in Government and insisted the land hoarding tax would be implemented.
“If it weren’t for the Green Party, you would have developers sitting on land continuously that could be built on for houses,” she said.
“That’s what it means to elect us, and what we’re going to the people with is to say, ‘It looks like Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are getting back in. The question is, do you want them to be there on their own?’
“Do you trust them to be there on their own, or do you want a party that has the values that you believe in, and can go in and keep sticking our elbows out?’”
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