Going back to my Green roots ...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the mess this country now finds itself in. I've also been wondering if there is a way out of the mess. Again and again I have found myself going back to my Green roots. I simply cant get away from the thought that Green policies and Green thinking would be a great way for this country to start off on the road to recovery. If only we could have even some of what the Green's promised before entering Govt in 2007 the country would be a better place. I'm not even talking about anything that costs money ... I know there is none of that around these days. If only we could start with some of the clean politics (an end to gombeenism, my friends?) once espoused by the Greens that would be great.

Unfortunately I don't have much hope that this start will ever be made. The Green Party have totally capitulated to Fianna Fail. The following article from the Irish Independent, Jan 24th 2010 "From tree-hugging party of protest to a party of paralysis" highlights what is wrong with the Green Party. From the article ... "Remote from their own support base, and desperate to cling on to office in the hope that the Government may run the full term, Gormley and Ryan know all too well that their prospects of being returned are virtually nil.

Some political leaders, when faced with such a scenario, adopt a "nothing left to lose" mentality. But rather than them leaving it "all out on the field", as the old saying goes,[U] the Greens appear paralysed by ineptitude, lacking any coherent strategy and struggling to keep their heads above water [/U]-- as shown by last Friday's opinion poll, which saw the party's support drop to 3 per cent.

Shafted by FF on the M3 at Tara within days of taking office; having to stomach the bank bail-out and Nama; crippling the motor trade through the abortive tax changes in 2008; the ridiculous insistence that the issue of college fees be dropped, and the continuing disaster of broadband -- these are but a few of the Green policy lowlights.

They also are left looking like losers after insisting on flying the kite too high with regard to the banking inquiry. When they could have easily claimed the credit for the thing happening in the first place, we are left with the impression that they once again failed to get what they were looking for, and have been left to lick their wounds.

They have also cried wolf once too often.

Time and time again we have had the scenario of Senator Dan Boyle, a man who lost his Dail seat in 2007 and had to be appointed to the Seanad, repeatedly speaking out against the Government, despite his two party colleagues occupying senior ministries, only to be told he is representing the Green Party but not the Green Party in Government. Too many times have the Greens themselves given the impression that they were thinking of walking out on Fianna Fail, only for egg to be left on their faces."

This opinion piece will probably be dismissed as rhetoric by Green supporters. But to dismiss this would be wrong. The piece above is accurate and represents the reality of what the Green Party have become.

An example of what the Green Party in Govt have become is how they handled the appointment of Colm Doherty as AIB Group Managing Director earlier this year. At the time AIB had said that there were no suitable candidates applying for the job. However, an RTE foi request showed this claim to be untrue "AIB had shortlist of five for CEO's job". The RTE piece claims that "RTÉ News has seen correspondence that shows AIB Chairman Dan O'Connor told the Department of Finance that a shortlist of five potential chief executives had been drawn up, four of which were external candidates. He also said that one banker from Australia was flying in for two days of interviews while two London-based candidates would be interviewed there. One final candidate, described by Dan O'Connor as 'very strong', was flying in from the US".

Hmmmmmm. So the claim that there were no suitably qualified candidates from outside AIB seems to have been untrue then.

Dan Boyle was against the appointment of an AIB insider. This article from the Tribune "Doherty chances of AIB job hit by political impasse" states that "The AIB succession race has run into a political impasse after coalition partner Green Party this weekend threatened to veto the appointment of any insider to head up Ireland's largest bank. The appointment of an internal candidate would send out the wrong signals," Dan Boyle, the party's finance spokesman, told the Sunday Tribune. "It would be a wrong decision to go for an insider," he said."

Fair enough. I agree with Dan Boyle. Colm Doherts appointment would be a "wrong decision". In fact, Dan felt so strongly about this that he said that the Green Party "would veto an internal appointment" in AIB.

But they didn't veto anything.

And Colm Doherty was appointed without a word.

And that is why I despair. And why the start of clean Green policies will probably never happen.