A thousand days in, should Greens stay in government?

Interesting article from the Sunday Tribune 28th Feb 2010 http://www.tribune.ie/news/article/2010/feb/28/a-thousand-days-in-should-greens-stay-in-governmen/

"(At the) Green party convention in Dundalk in April 2008 John Gormley outlined that his party has an "insistence on high standards in public life… We have always said that we would look after our political morality." He joked: "And it has been said that when we were faced with the choice between looking after other parties' ethics and saving the planet, we took the easier option!"

At the previous year's convention in Galway, Gormley condemned "Planet Bertie". Attacking PD leader Michael McDowell, he said: "Anything Bertie says or does, Michael will stick with him. The PD enforcer has become the Tammy Wynette of Irish politics, standing desperately by his man Bertie.

"Michael has gone native – more Fianna Fáil than the Fianna Fáilers themselves. The Green party wants high standards in high places; not because we are particularly virtuous, but because strong ethical standards improve the quality of our democracy… With the Greens in government… we will introduce the strictest ethical standards ever seen in this country."

Fast-forward a few years to Monday, 15 February 2010. Defence minister Willie O'Dea is facing pressure to give a more detailed explanation of the sworn affidavit he made in defamation proceedings, which he later accepted was untrue.

The Greens trotted out this line: "This issue has been dealt with to the satisfaction of the court."

Clearly, before they had properly familiarised themselves with the details of the O'Dea case, the Greens were happy to trot out exactly the same government line Fianna Fáil ministers were spinning.

When Fine Gael called a motion of no confidence in O'Dea two days later, the Greens claimed they were 'bounced' into voting in support of O'Dea, and minister Eamon Ryan delivered his now infamous "as I understand it" speech.

The following day, after Dan Boyle's "I don't have confidence in him" Tweet, Gormley went to Taoiseach Brian Cowen to signal O'Dea's position was untenable.

But only three days before that, the Greens were happy to trot out the government line that the issue had been dealt with to the satisfaction of the courts. They had not even familiarised themselves with the issue but they were willing to "stand by their man". This position is not unlike, the "Tammy Wynette" scenario Gormley referred to in 2007.

His accusation that the PDs had become more Fianna Fáil than Fianna Fáil itself is also starting to ring true for his own party. Over a third of the Green councillors who lost their seats in last year's local elections have been appointed to state bodies and other plum roles by the government.

The party that has long railed against the practice of appointing party hacks to state boards is now doing the same thing. The Greens have even set up a new quango, Foras Orgánach, to develop the organic sector.

For various reasons, many Green grassroots have departed. If the party's precarious position in the opinion polls were replicated in a general election, almost none of its TDs would survive.

Over the next 1,000 days, the Greens run the risk of becoming a disgruntled group of former ministers and TDs with a fractious grassroots organisation.

To save the party, they need to choose an issue that is salient with the public and use it to leave government, finally divorcing itself from its Tammy Wynette past."