Blossoming Greens can thank Ahern

Bertie transformed the Green Party's fortunes by inviting them into Government

IT IS unlikely that they will do so, but the Green Party should be proposing a vote of thanks to Bertie Ahern at their annual conference in Dundalk this weekend. Late last May, Ahern transformed the Green Party's fortunes by inviting them into Government. Going into last year's election the Green Party had six Dáil seats. Trends last spring suggested they would increase that number.

However, when the election came, they managed to do no more than hold their numbers at six, which was no mean achievement on a day when other smaller parties and Independents were squeezed. Had Bertie Ahern not invited them to join him on the Government side, the six Green Party TDs would have been left lounging on the Opposition benches for another five years, shouting the case for environmental change across the chamber, but with no real power to do anything about it.

Green Party deputies punched above their weight in the previous Dáil in part because the technical grouping of Independents and smaller parties gave them additional speaking slots.

With much of that grouping wiped out in the election, the Greens would have found it harder to make an impact, and the absence of Dan Boyle from the Dáil chamber would have made it even more difficult.

In Opposition, the Green Party might have had occasional amendments accepted and had some impact on political and public debate on their key issues, but it could only have been marginal.

One has to do no more than try to think of an occasion over the last nine months when Sinn Féin has had an impact in the Dáil to appreciate how insignificant the Green Party could have been.

By inviting them to take the Government road Ahern has made all the difference to the Green Party. In Opposition, John Gormley and Eamon Ryan would have been no more than voices offstage; in Government, they are real players. As Ministers they (and to a lesser extent Trevor Sargent) are making decisions daily in the very departments which impact most on the Green Party agenda. Incidently, were it not for Bertie Ahern, Dan Boyle would be seeking a job outside of politics and Deirdre De Burca would be relying on Wicklow County Council to provide a platform for her views.

Only a leader as comfortable as Ahern was last June could have given up two Cabinet positions which should otherwise have gone to his own deputies. Only Ahern, fresh from a third election victory, could get away with handing two substantial ministries, and one junior ministry (in agriculture no less) to a minority party whose votes he didn't even need to stay in power.

Guessing the real motivation for any of Ahern's actions has always been a precarious pursuit. It is a task which can now be best left to historians and explaining his reasons for bringing the Greens into Government will be a particular challenge.

Last June, Ahern told his parliamentary party that his decision was influenced by his early political experience as chief whip in minority Fianna Fáil governments in the 1980s, struggling every Tuesday and Wednesday to ensure they had enough votes to get legislation passed.

Bringing the Greens and Progressive Democrats into Government with the support of Independents was to be preferred and had the merit of giving him, and his successor as Taoiseach, what Pat Magner memorably described as a "rocket solid majority".

Having the Greens in Government also served to reinforce Fianna Fáil's new found status as a committed coalition partner. Ahern had already shown that unlike his two immediate predecessors, he could twice hold a coalition Government together with the Progressive Democrats for a full term. Showing that he could also negotiate and maintain a Government with the Green Party would further broaden Fianna Fáil's appeal.

There may, however, have been another motive for Ahern's action. It is a point I have heard a number of civil servants make privately since last June. They argue that before the 2007 election, Ahern had become a genuine convert to the cause of global warming, environmental protection and sustainable development.

This conversion had been shaped by Ahern's experience on the European stage as much as anything else. A sophisticated reader of policy trends and of the public mood, Ahern saw environmental politics as an idea whose time had come.

As the politician of his generation with most ministerial experience, Ahern would also have seen the institutional resistance to the environmental agenda within the civil and public service, the political system and, in particular, within his own party. What better way to shake up the system and rotate the Government machine in an environmental direction than to put an evangelist for the environmental cause sitting at the Minister's desk in each of the two key departments.

The success of the Greens in Government owes much to the skill and ability of the Green Party Ministers, but the fact that they are where they are is part of the Ahern legacy.