As a junior coalition partner, the Greens were always going to fall between two stools at their national conference: they could not be scathingly critical of the government, nor could they announce a raft of new initiatives as they only hold two cabinet portfolios.
On the night, Gormley played up to the party faithful in the first half of the speech (touching on all the Greens’ greatest hits: Trevor standing up to planning corruption; clamping down on bad planning; stopping corporate donations to political parties), before coming to more tedious business in the latter stages. I think the other way around would have worked better, with the climatic rallying cries coming in the closing minutes.
When you whittle away all the chaff, the only wheat remaining was his intention (and it was stated as just an intention) to introduce legislation stopping political donations from the big corporations, clamping down on money spent by political parties between elections and and reducing the amounts above which donations must be declared.
He also resolved to close the loophole whereby developers can use the planning retention system to avoid carrying out environmental impact assessments.
Like Cowen last week, the delivery seemed fine – nobody expects rousing oratory from Gormley and he wears his gentle-yet-serious persona well. (Though, from inside the hall, he did look a little stilted using the auto-cue – constantly rotating from onside of the podium to the other like C-3PO.)
But the final passages lacked anything exciting for delegates. There were a few whoops and yahoos from the crowd for his shout-out to local candidates in 23 places (probably the only wards where Greens stand a realistic chance of getting in).
But the in-house stuff is boring for anybody outside the party organisation. And that’s where this speech was most lacking: there was very little of interest for the wider public. The couple of new policies – which have yet to be sketched out in any detail – won’t excite anyone watching at home. The first half of the speech, though rousing for party members, won’t resonate much with a television audience.
Finally, it has been pointed out to me that in stressing that the Greens cannot be blamed for the current state of the banking system and that they do not accept corporate donations, Gormley distanced his party from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and (he claimed) Labour. I’ve also been told the reaction to Greens on the doorsteps has been relatively positive; there is an acceptance that they cannot be blamed for most of the current mess. Perhaps this aspect of the speech could have struck a chord with voters but I’m sceptical.
Eoin
