GREEN PARTY TDs and Senators have agreed to leave all critical decisions on the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle to party leader John Gormley, including the key calls on a ministerial reshuffle.
Following its parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday night, the party has maintained a public silence on a controversy which political opponents say has left the party in disarray since its emergence early this week.
However, privately, Mr Gormley’s party colleagues said yesterday there was general agreement among the parliamentary party that the leader alone would decide whether or not he stepped down as Minister for the Environment in accordance with an internal agreement on ministerial rotation.
The deal was agreed in 2007 as the Greens entered Government for the first time. Under the agreement, Mr Gormley would make way for his backbench colleague, Dún Laoghaire TD Ciarán Cuffe.
A small number of colleagues, who spoke yesterday on the condition of anonymity, said they thought Mr Gormley would stay on in his current position. They also said the party would continue to lobby hard for a second junior ministry in the reshuffle, now expected to be made later this month, following Ministers return to Ireland from St Patrick’s Day events overseas.
The Greens maintain that a second Green junior ministry was agreed by then taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2007. However, doubts surround the status of the deal since Brian Cowen became Taoiseach in 2008 and also since last year, when the number of junior ministers was cut from 20 to 15.
Asked about ministerial rotation yesterday, one Green source said: “This has always been John Gormley’s call. I think that the [matter] has been hugely exaggerated.”
Another source said the agreement on ministerial rotation was in existence but the issue would be determined by Mr Gormley and Mr Cowen. The source said much would turn on the party gaining a new junior ministry, which would go to Mr Cuffe.
The Opposition yesterday claimed the Greens were in disarray and the continuing uncertainty over its position had destabilised the Government.
Fine Gael whip Paul Kehoe said the Taoiseach’s claim that the Government was stable was undermined by the Greens who were incapable of agreeing on its ministers. “The Greens are in disarray. It’s a total disaster and looks like jobs for the boys,” he said.