Green Party (Ireland)
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Template:Infobox Irish Political Party
The Green Party/Comhaontas Glas was founded as the Ecology Party of Ireland in 1981. It became the Green Alliance in 1983 and in 1987 was renamed to its current title. It has succeeded in getting candidates elected to all levels of government; local, Dáil and European Parliament. The Republic of Ireland has a system of proportional representation called the Single Transferable Vote, which gives smaller parties, such as the Green Party, more opportunity to gain representation.
In the general election of 2002 it made a breakthrough, getting 6 TDs (Members of Parliament) elected to the Dáil. However, in the election to the European Parliament of June 2004, the party lost both of the European Parliament seats which it had won in the previous election in 1999. It has had little success at local level, winning only 18 seats out of 878. Nonetheless, this was a doubling of its 9 won in 1999. Its new councillors include Niall O Brolchain, elected in Galway City and J.J. Power, elected in Naas.
The Green Party's best-known politicians are its leader Trevor Sargent and Deputy Eamon Ryan. Apart from Sargent and Ryan the other Green Party TDs include: John Gormley, Ciarán Cuffe, Paul Gogarty and Dan Boyle.The Green Party's deputy leader is Councillor Mary White.
The Green Party has strong links with its counterpart in Northern Ireland, the Green Party in Northern Ireland, but it has had little success at any level of election in the North, though in the most recent local elections it won three councillors. Although it is a member of the European Federation of Green Parties, the Irish Green Party has adopted a notably more eurosceptic stance than is typical of Green Parties in other European Union countries.
The Green Party also has a youth wing, know as the Young Greens, which has several hundred members in branches throughout the country. Its current chair is Pat Barrett. Founded in 2002, it campaigns for protection of the environment, Human Rights and more funding for education. It is closely associated with Youth members of the Northern Ireland Green Party. In 2004 it became associated with The Federation of Young European Greens.
At the 2005 National Convention, Party Delegates voted overwhelming not to enter a pre-election pact with the other main opposition parties Fine Gael and Labour. Their reasoning for this was that participation in such an alliance would drown out their voice and deprive them of vital transfers from other left-wing parties, most notably Sinn Fein. Opinion polls put them at between 4% and 7%. See also: Worldwide green parties
Template:Greens Template:Political parties in Ireland
External link
- Green Party Official website (http://www.greenparty.ie/)
- Young Greens Official website (http://www.younggreens.ie/)