Gormley Should Let Another Minister Deal With Incinerator Issue

Today in the Seanad I highlighted the intervention of the US ambassador, Dan Rooney, in respect of the Poolbeg incinerator and the failure of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Gormley, to deal with a two year old application for a foreshore licence. 

Continue reading Gormley Should Let Another Minister Deal With Incinerator Issue…

Green Party Cronyism

We have been concerned in the past week about a rift in Government between the Green Party and Fianna Fáil. Now we appear to have a rift within the Green Party regarding the rotation of cabinet posts.

We should understand this for what it is, however, because it is the worst form of cronyism.  It is not about party or country.  It is about individual jobs for the boys. 

We had the Green Party preach about cronyism before the last election.  Since that election we have had appointments of Green Party candidates to FÁS, the National Disability Authority, the Organic Food Agency, the Library Council, the Irish Film Classification Office and the Private Residential Tenancies Board. 

We also had the spectacle of a Senator who rejected the Green Party because she failed to get appointed to the cabinet of the European Commission an independent office.    

The Greens promised to clean up cronyism.  Does they not how appreciate how this hypocritical action on their part is damaging politics? 

Fianna Fáil Needn’t Worry About the Green Party When it Can’t Keep it’s Own House in Order

I note with interest that the infighting currently being experienced by the Government is within Fianna Fail itself and not between the Government parties. The Green Party seems totally compliant with Government policy at the moment and has come to represent an effective apologist for the policies of this Fianna Fáil-led Government.

Today I asked the Leader of the Seanad about the statement made by the Tánaiste yesterday, when she criticised the validity of the McCarthy Report.  We all have our views on that report but what has happened to the principle of Cabinet collegiality? 

The Tánaiste is not alone in criticising the report.  Her ministerial colleagues, Deputies Cullen and Ó Cuív, have also criticised the McCarthy.  The Minister for Finance had to issue a statement to the effect that the McCarthy report is the basis of the Government’s thinking in the forthcoming budget. 

What is the Government’s position?   Do the comments of various Ministers - I refer in particular to the Tánaiste - represent a concerted effort to undermine the Minister for Finance as he tries to restore order to the public finances?   

Does the Greens Seanad absence signal an ‘empty chair policy’ in operation?

The fact that no Green Senator has been present in the Upper House at any stage this week has prompted me to question whether or not the Greens’ support for the Government is waning in light of the Party’s recent annihilation at the polls and Fianna Fáil’s slapping down of a Seanad nomination for the junior Government partner. 

One has to wonder whether or not the Greens’ absence from the Seanad this week signals the initiation of an ‘empty chair policy’ first used by the French Government in the 60s when it boycotted European Community meetings in response to the implementation of a policy it strongly disagreed with. 

The Greens’ nose is clearly out of joint following Fianna Fáil’s slapping down of a Green nominee for one of the two vacant Seanad seats. Are the Greens so put out that they have adopted an ‘empty chair policy’ or can they simply not be bothered to attend Seanad sittings? 

Does their non-attendance pertain solely to the Seanad nomination issue? Or is it more fundamental in nature signalling a collapse in the Green Party’s support for this Fianna Fáil- led Government?  

Furthermore, if the Green Party has a problem in respect of prospective Seanad candidates perhaps we can assist them on a Green nomination, were they to support a candidate from the Opposition. But in order to have a discussion on the issue they will first have to make a reappearance in the Upper House.

20 June 09 Miriam Lord’s Week Irish Times

21 June 09 Absent Greens Battle for Third Seanad Seat Sunday Times