The Green Party is to finalise its list of demands for a renegotiation of the programme for government before the end of the month when it is due to have talks with Taoiseach Brian Cowen.
One of the party’s two Ministers, Eamon Ryan, insisted yesterday that new programme for government talks would not create instability. “The Government has to change its narrative. It has to adapt to changed circumstances,” he said.
The Green Party’s final negotiating list is not yet drawn up, but Mr Ryan said the party would insist that the Metro North underground rail service goes ahead. It is opposed by the Department of Finance.
The outcome of such a renegotiation will have to be put to another Green Party conference in September or October and will require a two-thirds majority if it is to be accepted.
On Saturday, party delegates – by the narrowest of margins – gave the required two-thirds majority to campaign for a Yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign. The referendum is on October 2nd.
The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources said the Government must place the needs of public transport above road-building. “Right now, we can get Metro built for a good price,” Mr Ryan said.
A number of the Green Party’s preferred changes, such as reform of the political system, will incur little if any cost, while others – though he did not specify them – could actually contribute to the exchequer.
“Politics is the art of the allocation of resources. It isn’t a question of saying to Fianna Fáil, ‘take it, or leave it’.” Mr Ryan is credited by delegates with having made an influential speech on the Lisbon demand.
In his speech, Green Party leader John Gormley once again made clear that the party would seek a full ban on corporate donations to politicians and political parties, an issue he highlighted when he spoke to grassroots months before entering government.
Mr Gormley, Mr Ryan and other senior Green figures have been working for some weeks on preparations for the programme for government renegotiations which Senator Dan Boyle demanded during the elections and which appeared to be initially refused by the Taoiseach.
Mr Cowen and Mr Gormley are to hold some preliminary discussions on proposals by the end of the month, but it will be early September before the negotiations begin in earnest, both parties acknowledge.
Following Saturday’s vote, Mr Gormley insisted the Government would pass a climate change Bill, which was not included in the first programme for government agreed in June 2007. “It is not without its own difficulties as far as other departments are concerned, but I am confident that we can see it through.”
More bullishly, the Minister said: “The current programme has already been exceeded, so it has changed already and it will change even further as a consequence. There is no doubt about that. It is going to change as a result of those negotiations. Make no mistake about it.”
Judging by Mr Gormley and Mr Boyle’s declarations, the Greens now intend to adopt a more publicly independent, but not necessarily publicly confrontational posture towards their Fianna Fáil Coalition partners.
Acknowledging that many delegates had complaints, Mr Boyle said: “There are a lot of questions about internal communications and there were a lot of criticisms about how we are communicating our message externally to the electorate. We have allowed a perception to take hold that we don’t confront, that we don’t challenge, that we don’t question. We have been doing that constantly over two years.”
Under Mr Gormley’s political reform ideas, the number of TDs would be cut from 166 to 150, while a list system would be used for future European Parliament elections.
The independent electoral commission, which was proposed in the original Fianna Fáil/Greens deal to take charge of boundary changes, would be given an expanded role under Mr Gormley’s plans.