Sir, – Am I the only one who thinks it extraordinary that a group of 800 UK citizens from the North of Ireland, who are members of the Green Party, have the right to dictate what government we have in the Republic. No representation without taxation, especially for people who do not, I think, have an automatic right to vote in this country. – Yours, etc,
Senator DAVID NORRIS,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.
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Sir, – Can anybody explain what rationale determines that it is appropriate that a few hundred Green Party members from outside this jurisdiction could decide whether we end up with a government for this jurisdiction? – Yours, etc,
TOM TIERNAN,
Ennis,
Co Clare.
Sir, – How is it that no-one noticed during our election campaign that, in the event of a coalition deal including the Greens here, the Greens in Northern Ireland could be the “kingmakers”? – Yours, etc,
GILL McCARTHY,
Shillelagh,
Co Wicklow.
Sir, The Greens suffered an electoral nightmare after their previous participation as a minority party in a coalition government. That will be a picnic compared to what they will receive at the next election if they now reject entering government. – Yours, etc,
DENIS CREMINS,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – I do not understand the logic of those in Green Party who will not support the programme for government.
While far from perfect, it will see far more Green policies become law than otherwise. Surely as the junior party it is up to it to lead and generate support for further change in future elections. Haven’t we been told we are fast approaching the point of no return on climate change? Can we really wait another five years? – Yours, etc,
Dr SHANE BERGIN,
Stillorgan,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – There appears to be a chance that the Green Party will reject a programme that delivers exactly what it wanted on climate change – a 7 per cent reduction in emissions annually. This could be seen as the holy grail for green activists – and just not in Ireland.
A rejection of the deal would position the Greens as just another left-of-centre party with a slight leaning towards the environment. That is not the party I thought I voted for. I will never vote for the Green Party again if it fails this test, at such a critical time for Ireland and the planet. We only have 10 years left to try and minimise an average global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees, yet many within the Green Party appear to support being bystanders for the next five years in case their purity is besmirched.
No party gets everything that it wants in a coalition, and to expect that shows a level of naivete among those who would be identified as senior party members, including TDs. I believe that if the Greens vote to reject coalition we will have another general election, and I could almost guarantee that the Green Party will be wiped out, and this time because it prefers to fiddle while the world burns. – Yours, etc,
MAURICE J BERGIN,
Little Island,
Cork.
Sir, – If the Green Party rejects on Friday the deal on offer, and a general election is to follow, I wouldn’t wish to be a Green Party canvasser on the doorstep. Do the dissenters really believe a better deal is possible? When? Do they believe they can win 12, or more, seats in a new Dáil? Do they believe Sinn Féin’s vote will go down?
Should such political greenhorns be in government in the first place? – Yours, etc,
PADDY McEVOY,
March,
Cambridgeshire, UK.
Sir, – Can we expect more or less spin with a rotating taoiseach? – Yours, truly,
CHRISSIE BYRNE,
Sandycove,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – If it was not already clear that seeking to include the Greens in a government was a grave political error by the two traditionally dominant parties, it shouldn’t take long for the penny to drop, and it will be at a great cost to the country.
Their deputy leader attempted a heave in mid-negotiation for government. Their key negotiator came on Primetime and informed us she had to abstain on a proposal that she had just played a key part in negotiating. The deputy leader announced that she will be renegotiating the deal after 2½ years at the proposed changeover of taoiseach, only for Leo Varadkar to have to pull her up and remind her this was not part of the agreement which she had been involved in negotiating. Meanwhile, another Green TD announced a long overdue road between Limerick and Cork will not be built within the next five years, only for the Minister for Finance to have to correct him and confirm it will go ahead.
How can Fine Gael and Fianna Fail expect this collection of self-righteous zealots to keep to any undertaking when all of the above has occurred before they get next or near government?
And I believe an obvious question that must be directed at Fianna Fail and Fine Gael is how could they justify attempting to bring this dysfunctional collection of ingénues into a government when they refused to speak with Sinn Féin, which has more than three times the number of TDs than the Greens?
For the record, I have never voted Sinn Féin in my life, but the more I see of this inevitable debacle the more I’m beginning to wonder if maybe I should.
Unless the Green membership does us all a favour and allows us back to the polls, this will not end well. – Yours, etc,
TIM HEALY,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.