GREEN PARTY members would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn’t accept they had already been hugely successful in having their agenda implemented as Government policy, the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, has stated.
Any review of the Programme for Government would have to take account of growth rates of minus 8 per cent, instead of the predicted 4 per cent, he said yesterday.
Mr Dempsey said as “money isn’t there for a lot of projects” it was “timely” to undertake a review. He also said Fianna Fáil would have “a few ideas of our own as a party” which would be contributed to the process.
But the Minister, one of the key negotiators of the current Programme for Government, also said “it’s good to have somebody like Eamon Ryan and John Gormley in Government because of their knowledge and track record” on sustainable issues.
“I am a former environment minister, I had five years in environment. I think my record would have been good in that, and I think it is good to have a couple of [Green Party] colleagues in Government as well. I think that is very helpful.”
Mr Dempsey told reporters that he wouldn’t comment on speculation on a Cabinet reshuffle, remarking that it was entirely a matter for the Taoiseach.
On the review of the Programme for Government, he said: “I think the Greens would be doing themselves a disfavour if they didn’t accept that they have got a huge amount of their agenda – if they talked down the amount of their policies that are being implemented at the moment.”
He said the Greens “have made their views well known and very, very clear at this stage. They want to be in Government to deliver their policy, they are delivering their policy. We will review the Programme for Government. We will deliver that by 2012, and then I think we will be in a much better position to face the electorate at that stage.”
But he said the “the Programme for Government does need a review. We based it on a 4 per cent growth rate and we are probably minus 8 per cent this year.
“Money isn’t there for a lot of the projects that we thought we had money for, so it is timely to do that review and we will have a few ideas of our own as a party and we’ll work those out. However, former Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said the issues were not just about money, but how it was spent.
“People are maybe too narrowly focused,” he said. “The job of being in Government is about not just what money you spend but how you spend the money. We need to look at various ways we can spend money better, the small amount of money that we do have.”
The Minister of State for Agriculture said on RTÉ's This Week"there's a lot of social spending that needs to be done that could actually save money in the future". He cited the need for permanent schools to save money for rent on pre-fabs and more autism units to save money on home tuition fees.
The “budget problems we’ve faced have required decisions to be taken I think in a rushed fashion, of necessity”. But now they were midway through the Programme for Government and “it’s time to reflect on how we can make the decisions that are going provide value for money and meet people’s needs”.
Asked if there were issues that would cause the Greens to quit Government, he said “the work we’ve been doing before the local elections still needs to be done after the local elections”.
Mr Dempsey also paid tribute to Fianna Fáil general secretary Seán Dorgan who he said had been subjected to unfair criticism over the recent elections from unnamed sources in the weekend media.