THE MEETING involving 28 Green Party TDs, Senators and councillors in a Dublin city centre hotel was a "routine" event and could not be portrayed as extraordinary, party leader John Gormley insisted several times yesterday evening.
For sure, the purpose of the meeting was a discussion on the Budget. No votes were going to be called or taken, and the party's support for the Government over the cutbacks announced in education was assured before the meeting began.
But the timing of the meeting - on the eve of the debate on the Labour Party motion calling for a reversal of the education cutbacks and also of a march by teachers on Leinster House - raised it far above the status of routine.
Few routine party meetings end with a press conference, with the top brass of the party at the top table, and with all the major media organisations in attendance. Few routine meetings generate public statements from party members deeply unhappy at the impact of the cuts. Moreover, while there may have been no dissent or mutiny in the Fianna Fáil backbencher mode, a few of the party's prominent councillors are beginning to talk openly about being uncomfortable in the Coalition. They include Dublin councillor Bronwen Maher; Cllr Chris O'Leary from Cork and Clare councillor Brian Meaney (who was not at yesterday's meeting).
The meeting was attended by its six TDs, two Senators and 20 councillors, or well over two-thirds of its local representatives and lasted two and a half hours.
Gormley described it as "open, frank and very productive". According to others, there was a lot of unhappiness at the impact that the education cuts would have on class sizes and on the education sector as a whole, given that it was one of the cornerstones of the Greens' manifesto for last year's election.
The party leader addressed it at the start, setting out what he said was the desperate economic situation facing the country and the necessity to make cutbacks. It then opened into a round-table discussion. The most vocal in their criticism were O'Leary and Maher, though others, including education spokesman Paul Gogarty also spoke of their unhappiness with the cuts.
The outcome of the meeting was not a surprise. A succession of party representatives had taken to the airwaves yesterday to say that the Greens would oppose Labour's Private Members' motion calling for a reverse of the cutbacks when the Dáil divided on the issue tomorrow morning.
The agreed statement read out by Gormley after the meeting reaffirmed its support for the Government, while also acknowledging the disquiet within the party.
"Our elected representatives expressed real concern about the type of cutbacks in this year's Budget," he said. "A lot of them expressed concern that we do need equity and emphasis on social justice. We are looking for changes in education on an ongoing basis particularly in the short term."
He went on to say that the meeting reaffirmed the party's commitment to very active participation in Government.
However, not everybody in the meeting reaffirmed that commitment. Moreover, there was stronger dissent expressed than the unified and "routine" front would suggest.
Maher suggested that the Budget called into question continuing Green Party participation in the coalition.
"I am going in there today to ask that at our next annual convention in March that we have a vote on participation in Government, but first of all to have a realistic assessment of what we have achieved. Because there's no point of being in there for the sake of it."
After the meeting, she was more direct: "This message communicated by John [Gormley] through the media to me and Green voters is the clearest signal yet that its role in Government is permanent yet ill-defined. It also tells me that the party has no bottom line or any clearly defined point where it can morally or politically say 'enough is enough'," she said.
She found support: O'Learysaid his sense of unease with the Budget, on education and other matters, has not been allayed.
"If the cuts are not going to be reversed, I will be shouting out loud at that stage that the Green Party should pull out of Government," he said.
The party prides itself on its consensus approach. While there is no question about its continued participation in Government, there are some internal dissenting voices emerging.
