Local Greens general election candidate urges No vote on Government deal

PHOTO: Julie O'Donoghue

A Green Party general election candidate in this region is one of four from rural constituencies to publish a joint open letter urging party members to vote against the Programme for Government.

Julie O’Donoghue, who contested the February general election for the Green Party in Roscommon/Galway, is one of the candidates behind a strongly-worded open letter to members of the part in the Midlands, West, North East and North West.

A secondary school teacher in Roscommon town, she is also a a member of Extinction Rebellion Athlone.

The letter is also signed by Saoirse McHugh, a Green general election candidate in Mayo, Tate Donnelly, who ran for the party in Cavan Monaghan and Seán McCabe, a 2020 general election candidate in the Meath East constituency.

The candidates, all from rural constituencies, say they cannot support the Programme for Government

They say it “does not offer the type of assurance necessary to give us confidence that the next government will take effective, fair and enduring climate action while also addressing the crises we face in housing, health, homelessness and agriculture.”

“We are especially concerned that the measures in the Programme for Government will have a disproportionate, negative impact on young people in Ireland.”

Stating that they were particularly disappointed to see the programme being described as a ‘Green New Deal’, they said any true Green New Deal should recognise that action to combat climate change will not be successful unless it simultaneously ushers in social and economic reforms that will distribute opportunity more fairly and tackle inequality.

At the core of a true Green New Deal should be “an understanding that adequate housing, a decent healthcare system, economic security and workers’ rights all constitute the building blocks for the transition our society must make to a zero-carbon future.

“It understands that climate action which makes life harder for people will be resisted, successive targets will be missed, and the opportunity to avoid catastrophe lost.

“The Programme for Government does not offer a Green New Deal, but something more akin to a greener business as usual.”

“The economic vision commits to annual deficit cuts and balanced budgets at a time of huge uncertainty where deficit spending may well be necessary, and cuts are almost certainly going to hit upon the most vulnerable the hardest. Commitments on housing and healthcare do not offer assurances that these key issues of the last election, and drivers of inequality in Ireland, are to be robustly addressed.”

They say they are concerned that provisions on housing would provide subsidies to developers and prolong the housing crisis; that the proposals for agriculture would benefit agri industry interests and not family farms.

And they say much of what is being celebration as victories in the area of climate action and transport were already was already included in the heads of the Climate Action (Amendment) Bill which was published by Fine Gael in January of this year,

They say the commitment to significantly increase carbon tax without the Green Party’s approach of accompanying this with a dividend payment direct to citizens will impact “most severely on rural communities who do not have low carbon alternatives available to them.”

“We have the utmost respect for the Green Party negotiation team that worked tirelessly to secure the very best deal they could from a challenging negotiation process.

“We recognise that people are anxious to see a government formed at this time of uncertainty, and we know that the climate crisis requires urgent action. However, the need for urgency makes it all the more important to consider inequality. To be fast, climate action must be fair. Policies that hit the most vulnerable in society the hardest and exacerbate inequality are neither just nor effective.

“We accept that a ‘no’ vote comes with uncertainty, but we must make our decision based on the evidence before us.

“We want to see deep, transformative change that sets us on a course to a safer and fairer future, one in which all people in Ireland can live lives of dignity and share in the benefits of the actions we must take to avoid climate breakdown. We want to realise a just transition to a zero carbon future. What is on offer in this PfG and the proposed coalition is not this.

“We all urge Green Party members to vote against the proposed Programme for Government.”