Green Party TDs are meeting again on Friday to decide whether to go into coalition with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.
This is the third day in a row that the 12 Dáil deputies are to meet, by teleconference, to discuss the burning issue for the party.
The party met for two hours from 10am to 12 noon on Thursday, when it had to break because the Dáil was sitting for an emergency coronavirus session.
Another teleconference is scheduled to get underway at 10 o’clock this morning.[fri]
It is understood that there were also meetings with a number of rural independents yesterday who the Greens would like to convince they are not anti-rural or against traditional agriculture.
It followed Roscommon TD, Denis Naughten, saying on Tuesday that we would have to “cull the national herd” to meet the Green Party’s 7% annual reductions in carbon emissions target.
Greens leader, Eamon Ryan, is asking his party for permission to join three way talks with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael leaders, Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar.
This would set the stage for a new, historic, coalition government of the three parties.
Ultimately, the party has a tradition of acting unanimously and even if there are divisions, they eventually move as a united force.
But many of the new TDs in the Green Party are wary of joining the proposed alliance.
The Greens are riding the crest of a wave with the new politicians aware that voters expect them to act strongly on climate action.
It could be detrimental to the future fortunes of the party if they don’t.
The main policy demand from the Greens that has been set down as a red line, or “a precondition for entering government,” is a minimum 7% carbon emissions target every year.
Crucially, this was not rejected by FF/FG in their letter back to the Greens earlier this week that the party is now discussing.
Instead, the two mainstream parties responded jointly by saying that this needed to be “teased out” further.
There is also a potential sweetener with a promise to introduce a comprehensive climate action bill within 100 days of the new government.
The slow pace of agreement led Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín yesterday to accuse the Greens, along with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael of “dangerously dragging their feet on government formation”.
He said: “Eighty two days have passed since the General Election and yet no new government is in sight.
“Unofficially mid-June is now seen as the target date for government formation. A wait of another 50 days is shocking on so many levels”.
