Latest poll

Something of a downer for Labour on the day that’s in it. Tomorrow’s Red C / Sunday Business Post poll:

FG 31 (+1)
FF 28 (+5)
Lab 17 (-5)
SF 7 (-4)
Green 7 (+1)
Others 10 (+2)

Pimp (I mean green) your house

The winning entry in the Green Party’s viral video competition:

The rest of the entries are here.

Gormley’s speech: lapped up the faithful but not much for the masses

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.

The Green cure

My friends, the Green Party will do the right thing. We will be part of the cure. And we will get Ireland back on the road to economic recovery.

- John Gormley, leader’s speech, Green Party National Convention

Mark Coughlan has the main points. I’ll have more shortly.

Sticking with the Greens

Hacks covering political conventions are often obsessed with capturing the ‘mood’ over the weekend. But while I don’t think the opinions of hundreds or thousands of delegates can be easily surmised, a certain resolution and determination seems to have emerged among Green Party members here in Wexford despite the subdued atmosphere.

I joined the Green Party just over two years ago, thinking it one of the most practical ways of doing something about the issues I believe will define our generation – climate change, resource depletion, social injustice and global poverty. I wasn’t in the country the night the party decided to enter government, but I was convinced it was the right move.

Like many members, I was swept up in the excitement of the occasion, ignoring a proposed programme for government disappointingly light on Green policy. For a small party with a short history on the fringe of Irish politics, the opportunity to enter government was too exciting – too historic – to turn down. I put the reality of the mediocre deal on offer to the back of my mind.

Since than, many on the left have criticsed the Greens’ decision to enter government, and particularly the speed with which some core party positions were dropped.  However, it’s much easier to avoid the awkward practicalities of entering government and gain lasting influence than to stay outside on the moral high ground, standing on a soapbox that allows critics to appease their conscience and appear radical while practically achieving little, a position many on the left seem quite comfortable with.

‘Obama tools’

Meet Oisin Hanrahan and Paddy Cosgrave of the soon-to-be-launched MiCandidate.eu . The pair’s website will be collecting and hosting information on all the Green Party’s candidates in the forthcoming European and local elections.

Originally involved in the Rock the Vote Ireland campaign, Oisin and Paddy first built their website to host information on all general election candidates in 2007, during which they’re content was embedded on the RTÉ and Irish Times websites.

This year they have agreed with a number of political parties to host candidate information on their behalf, complemented by interactive tools – which, for simplicity, they call ‘Obama tools’. These include the facility to sign-up to a candidate’s txt and email updates, while also being able to respond and offer your opinion on their new policies, etc.

MiCandidate.eu will also host information on candidates contesting the European elections in all 27 EU member states.

At this stage, I have no idea how well these services will work and, even if they’re great, how many people would be interested. The site’s main selling point seems to be satisfying the demand for greater interactivity between voters and candidates’ campaigns since the success of my.barackobama.com But, wouldn’t such a service need to be tailored to suit each candidate’s needs and personality?

The standard rate of the service for candidates is €249, but Green Party election hopefuls can avail of it for €199. The site will undergo public testing in early April.

Photo to follow as soon as I find a USB cable for my camera

Eoin

No to national unity government

The main only news from this morning: the two motions on a national unity government were defeated. The first, calling for the Greens to enter into negotiations with all the other parties in the Dáil, was rejected on the floor. The second, proposing that the leadership consider the merits of such a government, was too close to call by a hand count and a ballot was necessary. The result was 55 in favour, 45 against – short of the required two-thirds majority. Tight enough for a motion that, if passed, would have been embarrassing for the leadership.

Eoin

‘Let us become the change we want to see happen’

- Trevor Sargent this morning (full speech here).

And yet another party throws out the Obama-like rallying cries.

Later, a herd of bloggers (what’s the appropriate collective noun?) will be attending the ‘Lessons from Obama’ workshop, which is being given by the Greens’ New Media officer Martin Leathem. See the Live Blog from quarter past five on.

Eoin

YRC arrives in Wexford…

Yellow Roman Candles has just arrived in Wexford for the Green Party convention after a mammoth six hour trip from Galway – a trip that included a strange incident somewhere in Laois involving a line of stopped traffic, a minibus, and a large crowd on the road examining a weird gelatinous fluid smeared on the bonnet and windscreen of a car. Traveling through Clara and Tullamore before that, I wasn’t too surprised to see the endless hoardings and banners that congratulated local-man-made-good Brian Cowen on his appointment as Taoiseach gone.

The mood in the White’s hotel bar amongst party members appeared fairly subdued, and the crowd was quite a bit older than expected. Tomorrow is when the real action starts of course. I’m keen to hear how a couple of policy motions go down – there’s two that touch on whether it’s time for the Greens to pull out of government, one that calls on the government to do something about the vast number of empty houses in the country, another on nepotism in politics, another calling on Dublin Bus to gets it act together, as well as a rather silly motion calling for a national unity government. Overall the list of motion is fairly dull though, with most of them dealing with issues such as public and private sector salaries and bonuses, politicans’ pay and expeses, the economic crisis and something called the green economy. Boring! Could I suggest a motion proposing somebody (anybody!) else but Liam O’Maonlai for tomorrow’s pre-Gormley entertainment?

No cars go…

 

BikeMi rank at Piazza del Duomo, Milan

Brian Cowen entered the conference hall of the FF Ard Fheis this evening to Arcade Fire’s ‘No Cars Go’. While our Taoiseach may not have seen the environmental message I have decided is contained therein it feels apt that a week ahead of the Green Party’s conference in Wexford (Eoin and Lenny will be down there for YellowRomanCandles) we check out how the Italians have established a bike rental scheme to complement its public transport system. 

Before I try to explain how the scheme works I should probably explain how far the Italians, and the Milanese in particular, are ahead of us in the public transport stakes.

Latest poll

The FF slump continues. Labour on the rise. In tomorrow’s Sunday Business Post:

FG 30% (-3)
FF 23% (-5)
LAB 22% (+8)
GRN 6% (-2)
SF 11% (+2)
Ind 8%

Via Irish Election

Fianna Fáil and the Greens – the prostitution analogy

Paul Gogarty has been known to express himself in unusual ways. In a Hotpress interview to be published on Thursday, his thoughts on coalition with Fianna Fáil:

Put it this way, if you get into bed with anyone you have prostituted yourself! We are lying there bollix naked next to Fianna Fail. We’ve been screwed by them a few times, but we are hoping we can roll them around to get what we want, over the longer term.

And on John Gormley:

John has gone inward. He has gone a bit within himself because of the ministry. He’s not a cuddly teddy bear! He’s one of the good guys, but he’s like one of these hippos that, if you stand on his tail, he will demolish you! John has balls and he’ll fight his corner. He’ll cut your throat if it means doing the right thing. But the question is, have we the balls to put it to Fianna Fail and has he taken his share of responsibility? The jury is still out.

Much more, including his thoughts on Beverley Flynn and a “flirty” Mary Coughlan, here.

The €200 parking levy

The Government has published details of the €200 employee parking levy, which is to come into force next January. Before we get to the political and policy reasoning behind this, here are the basic facts -

A fee of €200 will apply for each employee parking space within the local authorities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick. The Minister for Finance may extend this levy to other Local Authorities in due course – watch out Sligo!

The employee will pay but the employer will administer payment through the PAYE system – so don’t worry, no one has to deal with their bureaucratic City Hall!

Three options

So Micheál Martin has confirmed that the Government will make a decision on another Lisbon referendum before the European Council meeting in December. Senator Déirdre de Búrca and Irish Times foreign editor Paul Gillespie predicted as much on Saturday, when they were speaking at the Young Greens convention.

De Búrca narrowed the Government’s options down to three choices: 1) Put the treaty before the people again, having received assurances and declarations from the European Council on issues like neutrality and retaining a commissioner; 2) Have the Oireachtas ratify all aspects of the treaty that do not have implications for Bunreacht na hÉireann and put the constitutional issues to the people (in stages or all at once) at a later date; or 3) Propose a multi-speed Europe with Ireland and other sceptical member states opting out from certain developments (though the legal mechanisms for this are not currently in place). So, which option will Cowen go for?

Settling Guantánamo inmates here

I think Amnesty Ireland have been pushing this for sometime but Colm O’Gorman mentioned it again during his speech to the Young Greens on Friday. Not only would we be giving an ex-detainee refuge from torture in his native land, we’d also be gaining leverage with an Obama administration on the closure of the Guantánamo Bay detention centre and the ending of rendition flights through Shannon.

Well it appears the wheels may already be in motion:

A GUANTÁNAMO Bay detainee’s lawyer is in discussions with the Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs about the possibility of allowing him to settle in Ireland… It is understood there is some resistance to the proposal within the Department of Justice, but some Department of Foreign Affairs officials believe the Government could earn kudos with the Obama administration by agreeing to resettle at least one detainee.

The yoof

I sat in on the Young Greens national convention at Trinners on Friday expecting vocal dissent from idealistic and passionate young delegates. What I witnessed was a grudging – and some would say mature – acceptance by members of John Gormley’s defence of his party’s record in government.