Election pact: what they said Cork South Central TD Dan Boyle said everyone in the Green Party agreed they should contest the next election as an independent political party. "The issue is negotiations, what kind of Government we want, and how and when we would agree it."
He said the party could give out signals during a campaign as to who it would prefer to be in Government with, and he noted that they had good co-operative relations with Fine Gael and Labour in the Dáil.
However, he said the motion from Cork South Central was clear: "Whatever about how before an election we might indicate a preference for certain parties, any form of a common policy platform means we stop being an independent political party." He said many in the Greens would find it difficult to support the current Government parties. "But it doesn't necessarily follow that other political parties will be any more willing to accept Green policies."
Supporting the motion from the Oireachtas group which would have left open the prospect of a pre-election pact, Eamonn Ryan agreed that the Greens should stand as an independent political party. However, in the run-up to the next election "there may be a situation where we decide" to consider a pact.
If other parties were willing to take on board Green aims such as a rebalancing of the transport spending towards public transport, better supports for the weakest in society and other objectives, then a pre-election deal "might be the bold step that would ignite that alternative". The possibility of this should be left open.
Cllr Fintan McCarthy said that Fine Gael and Labour "have already jumped aboard a coalition train, but it is an antique steam engine that isn't going anywhere". He did not want to see the Green Party "chasing after it down the tracks". Rather he wanted to see in a post-election situation, "that it is the other parties that should be chasing us".
Colm O'Caomhanaigh warned delegates that if the Green Party was not part of a pact, it could find itself cut out of media and public discussion at election time. In 1997 when there were two election pacts facing each other, the Green Party had been sidelined and John Gormley and Trevor Sargent had barely held onto the two Green seats.
The party had done better in 2002 because there were no pre-election pacts and transfers from other parties were therefore more easily obtained. If there were two pre-election pacts facing each other at the next election, they could be marginalised again.
Joe Guerin said that no alternative to a Fianna Fáil/PD combination had been offered to voters in 2002. "It is important that voters are offered an alternative. We Greens have to play a part in providing that alternative, and we have to be part of that alternative. "In the interests of the country it is imperative that this Government be removed."
Cllr Chris O'Leary said the party needed to send out a clear message "that we are serious about being in government but not at the expense of Green policies". The party had the opportunity to build its support at the next election. They should tell other parties that "if you really want to do business with us, wait and see what the electorate decides".
Cllr David Healy opposed a pre-election deal. "Have Fine Gael and Labour provided an alternative to neo-liberal economics, the growing gap between rich and poor, the misuse of our resources and the destruction of the environment?" He said if the party was being offered a pact on the basis of such alternative policies, they might consider it.
But that was not what was on offer. "Fine Gael and Labour are not providing an alternative to the current system. We are." Paul Gogarty TD said the motion from the Oireachtas group to leave open the possibility of a pre-election pact was "a fudge" that had emerged because the party's TDs held different views on the issue. By rejecting it they were saying that they would only talk about government after an election, and they would be "an integral part, not the rump end" of any coalition.