Sir, – With the news that Mary Lou McDonald is in communication with Eamon Ryan of the Green Party, I sincerely hope that the Greens will learn from the mistakes made in the disastrous 2007 coalition with Fianna Fáil. That coalition made no discernible difference to Ireland’s carbon emissions (our emissions per person are the third-worst in the EU and double those of Sweden) and yet the Green Party was decimated.
Judging by its manifesto, Sinn Féin appears to have almost no understanding of environmental issues. Sinn Féin is repudiating carbon taxes, although carbon taxes are much the best way of reducing emissions and are only regressive if poorly designed.
The Green Party should only enter coalition with Sinn Féin based on a cast-iron promise of carbon taxes going up and not down; otherwise it will have betrayed the trust of green voters. – Yours, etc,
JOHN ANDREWS,
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.