Green Party (Ireland)

The Green Party began life as the Ecology Party in 1981, with Christopher Fettes serving as the party's first chairperson. The party's first public appearance was modest: the event announced that they would be contesting the November 1982 general election, and was attended by their 7 election candidates, 20 party supporters, and one singular journalist. Fettes had opened the meeting by noting the party didn't expect to win any seats. Willy Clingan, the journalist present, recalled that "The Ecology Party introduced its seven election candidates at the nicest and most endearingly honest press conference of the whole campaign".[6] The Ecology party took 0.2% of the vote that year.

Following a name change to the Green Alliance, it contested the 1984 European elections, with party founder Roger Garland winning 1.9% in the Dublin constituency. The following year, it won its first election when Marcus Counihan was elected to Killarney Urban District Council at the 1985 local elections, buoyed by winning 5,200 first preference votes as a European candidate in Dublin the previous year. The party nationally ran 34 candidates and won 0.6% of the vote.

The party continued to struggle until the 1989 general election when the Green Party (as it was now named) won its first seat in Dáil Éireann, when Roger Garland was elected in Dublin South. Garland lost his seat at the 1992 general election, while Trevor Sargent gained a seat in Dublin North. In the 1994 European election, Patricia McKenna topped the poll in the Dublin constituency and Nuala Ahern won a seat in Leinster. They retained their European Parliament seats in the 1999 European election, although the party lost five councillors in local elections held that year despite an increase in its vote. At the 1997 general election, the party gained a seat when John Gormley won a Dáil seat in Dublin South-East.

At the 2002 general election the party made a breakthrough, getting six Teachtaí Dála (TDs) elected to the Dáil with 4% of the national vote. However, in the 2004 European election, the party lost both of its European Parliament seats. In the 2004 local elections, it increased its number of councillors at county level from 8 to 18 (out of 883) and at town council level from 5 to 14 (out of 744).

The party gained its first representation in the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2007, the Green Party in Northern Ireland having become a regional branch of the party the previous year.

The Green Party entered government for the first time after the 2007 general election, held on 24 May. Although its share of first-preference votes increased at the election, the party failed to increase the number of TDs returned. Mary White won a seat for the first time in Carlow–Kilkenny; however, Dan Boyle lost his seat in Cork South-Central.

The party had approached the 2007 general election on an independent platform, ruling out no coalition partners while expressing its preference for an alternative to the outgoing coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats.[7][8] Neither the outgoing government nor an alternative of Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party had sufficient seats to form a majority. Fine Gael ruled out a coalition arrangement with Sinn Féin,[9] opening the way for Green Party negotiations with Fianna Fáil.

Before the negotiations began, Ciarán Cuffe TD wrote on his blog that "a deal with Fianna Fáil would be a deal with the devil… and [the Green Party would be] decimated as a Party".[10] The negotiations were undertaken by Donall Geoghegan (the party's general secretary), Dan Boyle and the then party Chair John Gormley. The Green Party walked out after six days; this, Geoghegan later said, was owing to there not being "enough in [the deal] to allow [the Green Party] to continue".[11] The negotiations restarted on 11 June; a draft programme for government was agreed the next day, which under party rules needed 66% of members to endorse it at a special convention.[12][13] On 13 June 2007, Green members at the Mansion House in Dublin voted 86% in favour (441 to 67; with 2 spoilt votes) of entering coalition with Fianna Fáil. The following day, the six Green Party TDs voted for the re-election of Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach.[14]

New party leader John Gormley was appointed as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Eamon Ryan was appointed as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Trevor Sargent was named Minister of State for Food and Horticulture.

Before its entry into government, the Green Party had been a vocal supporter of the Shell to Sea movement,[15] the campaign to reroute the M3 motorway away from Tara and (to a lesser extent) the campaign to end United States military use of Shannon Airport.[16] After the party entered government there were no substantive changes in government policy on these issues, which meant that Eamon Ryan oversaw the Corrib gas project while he was in office. The Green Party had, at its last annual conference, made an inquiry into the irregularities surrounding the project (see Corrib gas controversy) a precondition of entering government[17] but changed its stance during post-election negotiations with Fianna Fáil.

The 2008 budget, announced on 6 December 2007, did not include a carbon levy on fuels such as petrol, diesel and home heating oil, which the Green Party had sought before the election.[18] A carbon levy was, however, introduced in the 2010 Budget.[19] The 2008 budget did include a separate carbon budget announced by Gormley,[20] which introduced new energy efficiency tax credit,[18] a ban on incandescent bulbs from January 2009,[21] a tax scheme incentivising commuters' purchases of bicycles[22] and a new scale of vehicle registration tax based on carbon emissions.[23]

At a special convention on whether to support the Treaty of Lisbon on 19 January 2008, the party voted 63.5% in favour of supporting the Treaty; this fell short of the party's two-thirds majority requirement for policy issues. As a result, the Green Party did not have an official campaign in the first Lisbon Treaty referendum, although individual members were involved on different sides.[24] The referendum did not pass in 2008, and following the Irish government's negotiation with EU member states of additional legal guarantees and assurances, the Green Party held another special convention meeting in Dublin on 18 July 2009 to decide its position on the second Lisbon referendum. Precisely two-thirds of party members present voted to campaign for a 'Yes' in the referendum. This was the first time in the party's history that it had campaigned in favour of a European treaty.[25]

The government's response to the post-2008 banking crisis significantly affected the party's support, and it suffered at the 2009 local elections, returning with only three County Council seats in total and losing its entire traditional Dublin base, with the exception of a Town Council seat in Balbriggan.

Déirdre de Búrca, one of two Green Senators nominated by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2007, resigned from the party and her seat in 2010, in part owing to the party's inability to secure her a job in the European Commission.[26] On 23 February 2010, Trevor Sargent resigned as Minister of State for Food and Horticulture owing to allegations over contacting Gardaí about a criminal case involving a constituent.[27] On 23 March 2010, Ciarán Cuffe was appointed as Minister for Horticulture, Sustainable Travel, Planning and Heritage while the party gained a junior ministerial position with Mary White appointed as Minister for Equality, Human Rights and Integration.

The Green Party supported the passage of legislation for EC–ECB–IMF financial support for Ireland's bank bailout. On 19 January, the party derailed Taoiseach Brian Cowen's plans to reshuffle his cabinet when it refused to endorse Cowen's intended replacement ministers, forcing Cowen to redistribute the vacant portfolios among incumbent ministers. The Greens were angered at not having been consulted about this effort, and went as far as to threaten to pull out of the coalition unless Cowen set a firm date for an election due that spring. He ultimately set the date for 11 March.[28]

On 23 January 2011, the Green Party met with Cowen following his resignation as leader of senior coalition partner Fianna Fáil the previous afternoon.[29] The Green Party then announced it was breaking off the coalition and going into opposition with immediate effect.[30] Green Party leader John Gormley said at a press conference announcing the withdrawal:

For a very long time we in the Green Party have stood back in the hope that Fianna Fáil could resolve persistent doubts about their party leadership. A definitive resolution of this has not yet been possible. And our patience has reached an end.[31][32]

The government ministerial posts of Gormley and Ryan were reassigned to Fianna Fáil ministers Éamon Ó Cuív and Pat Carey respectively.[33] Green Ministers of State Ciarán Cuffe and Mary White also resigned from their roles.[33]

In almost four years in Government, from 2007 to 2011, the Green Party contributed to the passage of civil partnership for same-sex couples,[34] the introduction of major planning reform,[35] a major increase in renewable energy output,[36] progressive budgets,[37] and a nationwide scheme of home insulation retrofitting.[38]

Catherine Martin became the first deputy leader of the party in 2011

The party suffered a wipeout at the 2011 general election, with all of its six TDs losing their seats, including those of former Ministers John Gormley and Eamon Ryan. Three of their six incumbent TDs lost their deposits. The party's share of the vote fell below 2%, meaning that they could not reclaim election expenses, and their lack of parliamentary representation led to the ending of state funding for the party.[39]

The party candidates in the 2011 election to the Seanad were Dan Boyle and Niall Ó Brolcháin; neither was elected, and as a result, for the first time since 1989 the Green Party had no representatives in the Oireachtas.

Eamon Ryan was elected as party leader on 27 May 2011, succeeding John Gormley.[40] Catherine Martin, was later appointed deputy leader, while Ciarán Cuffe and Mark Dearey were also placed on the party's front bench.[41]

In the 2014 European election the party received 4.9% of the vote nationally (an increase of 3% on the 2009 result), failing to return a candidate to the European Parliament. In the 2014 local elections the party received 1.6% of the vote nationally. 12 candidates were elected to county councils, an increase of 9.

At the 2016 general election the Green Party gained two seats, becoming the first Irish political party to lose all seats at an election and win seats at the subsequent election.[42] In the subsequent election to Seanad Éireann, Grace O'Sullivan became the first elected Green Party Senator, winning a seat of the Agricultural Panel. She established the Civil Engagement group with five Independent Senators. On 30 May 2016, the Green Party joined with the Social Democrats to form a technical group in the Dáil.[43][44]

In the 2019 local elections the Green Party saw significant gains, increasing their number of councillors from 12 to 49 and becoming the second largest party on Dublin City Council.[45] At the concurrent 2019 European Parliament election the party received 11.4% of the vote nationally (an increase of 6.5% on the 2014 result), the highest share they have won at any election to date. As a result, the Greens are represented in the European Parliament for the first time since 2004 by two MEPs - former TD Ciarán Cuffe in Dublin and Senator Grace O'Sullivan in South.[46][47]

On 1 November 2019, Pippa Hackett was elected to Seanad Éireann. She filled the seat left vacant by Grace O'Sullivan after the 2019 European Parliament election. Joe O'Brien was elected to Dáil Éireann on 29 November 2019 in the 2019 Dublin Fingal by-election. He became the party's first TD to win a bye-election and the party's third TD in the 32nd Dáil.

In the 2020 general election, the party had its best result ever, winning 7.1% of the first-preference votes and returning 12 TDs, an increase of ten from the last election. It became the fourth-largest party in the Dáil and entered government in coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Ryan, Martin and Roderic O'Gorman were appointed as cabinet ministers, with four Green Ministers of State. In the 2020 Seanad election the party returned two senators. A further two senators were nominated by Taoiseach, Micheál Martin bringing the total party representation in the Oireachtas to 16. In July 2020, Eamon Ryan retained his leadership of the party over Catherine Martin in the 2020 Green Party leadership election.

Following a Climate Bill described as "not fit for purpose" by An Taisce,[48] and a series of unpopular votes in the Dáil that saw the Green Party vote against measures to raise the minimum wage, ban "co-living" housing developments, ban evictions for six months during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as Roderic O'Gorman pushing through a bill which did not stop the sealing of the records of the Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation for 30 years, the party saw several high-profile resignations. These resignations included the heads of the Young Greens/Óige Ghlas and the Queer Greens/Glasa Aiteacha, and Councillor Lorna Bogue.[49][50] On 19 January 2021, two more councillors, Liam Sinclair (Leader of the Green Party on South Dublin County Council) and Sophie Nicoullaud (Dublin City Council) announced their resignations over the parties actions in government.[51] On 25 January 2021, a fourth councillor, Peter Kavanagh, quit the party, citing the party's "culture of tolerating personal abuse" after receiving harassment from people claiming to be Green Party members.[52]

Neasa Hourigan was a founding member of the Just Transition Greens

In parallel to other Green Parties in Europe, the 1980s and 1990s saw a division within the Irish Green Party between two factions; the "Realists" (nicknamed the "Realos") and the "Fundamentalists (nicknamed the "Fundies").[61][62] The Realists advocated taking a pragmatic approach to politics, which would mean having to accept some compromises on policy in order to get party members elected and into government in order to enact change. The Fundamentalists advocated more radical policies and rejected appeals for pragmatism, citing that the looming effects of Climate Change would leave no time for compromise. Following a national convention in 1998 which saw a realist majority of members defeat a minority of fundamentalist members on a number of votes, and the party subsequently enter government for the first time in 2002, the factionalism of the Realists vs the Fundamentalists was seen to have wilted away with the Realists becoming the ascendent faction. However, in some respects, the division only laid dormant.[63]

With the end of the Greens' first term in government and subsequent wipeout in terms of elected representatives, a long rebuilding process left no room for factionalism. However, upon the second rise of the party in the late 2010s, what some would see as a second generation of the Realist vs Fundamentalist division emerged. Following the 2019 local elections and the 2020 general election, the party had more elected representatives than ever before as well as its highest ever membership.[1] This surge in members brought with it a more diverse political outlook of the membership than the party had seen in two decades. Many of the new members of the party were more radical in outlook than their more longstanding peers. On 22 July 2020, several prominent members of the party formed the "Just Transition Greens", an affiliate group within the party with a green left/eco-socialist outlook, who have the objective of pressuring the party towards more hardline policies based on the concept of a Just Transition.[64][65][66] During the 2020 Green Party leadership election, a significant aspect of the candidacy of Catherine Martin was that it was suggested that Martin could better represent the views of radicals within the party than the incumbent Eamon Ryan.[67][68]

Name	Portrait	Period	Constituency
No leader		1981–2001	N/A
Trevor Sargent		2001–2007	Dublin North
John Gormley		2007–2011	Dublin South-East
Eamon Ryan		2011–present	Dublin South Dublin Bay South

The party did not have a national leader until 2001. At a special "Leadership Convention" in Kilkenny on 6 October 2001, Trevor Sargent was elected the first official leader of the Green Party. He was re-elected to this position in 2003 and again in 2005. The party's constitution requires that a leadership election be held within six months of a general election.

Sargent resigned the leadership in the wake of the 2007 general election to the 30th Dáil. During the campaign, Sargent had promised that he would not lead the party into Government with Fianna Fáil.[70] At the election the party retained six Dáil seats, making it the most likely partner for Fianna Fáil. Sargent and the party negotiated a coalition government; at the 12 June 2007 membership meeting to approve the agreement, he announced his resignation as leader.

In the subsequent leadership election, John Gormley became the new leader on 17 July 2007, defeating Patricia McKenna by 478 votes to 263. Mary White was subsequently elected as the deputy Leader. Gormley served as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government from July 2007 until the Green Party's decision to exit government in December 2010.

Following the election defeats of 2011, Gormley announced his intention not to seek another term as Green Party leader. Eamon Ryan was elected as the new party leader, over party colleagues Phil Kearney and Cllr Malcolm Noonan in a postal ballot election of party members in May 2011. Monaghan-based former councillor Catherine Martin defeated Down-based Dr John Barry and former Senator Mark Dearey to the post of deputy leader on 11 June 2011 during the party's annual convention. Roderic O'Gorman was elected party chairperson.

The Green Party lost all its Dáil seats in the 2011 general election.[71] Party Chairman Dan Boyle and Déirdre de Búrca were nominated by the Taoiseach to Seanad Éireann after the formation of the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrats–Green Party government in 2007, and Niall Ó Brolcháin was elected in December 2009. De Búrca resigned in February 2010, and was replaced by Mark Dearey. Neither Boyle nor O'Brolchain was re-elected to Seanad Éireann in the Seanad election of 2011, leaving the Green Party without Oireachtas representation until the 2016 general election, in which it regained two Dáil seats.

Ryan's leadership was challenged by deputy leader Catherine Martin in 2020 after the 2020 government formation; he narrowly won a poll of party members, 994 votes (51.2%) to 946.[72]

The Green Party is organised throughout the island of Ireland, with regional structures in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Green Party in Northern Ireland voted to become a regional partner of the Green Party in Ireland in 2005 at its annual convention, and again in a postal ballot in March 2006[73].[74] Brian Wilson, formerly a councillor for the Alliance Party, won the Green Party's first seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2007 election. Steven Agnew held that seat in the 2011 election.