FORMER GREEN Party senator Déirdre de Búrca has said it was not unusual for party leader John Gormley to agree that Fianna Fáil was "running rings" around the party but then to fail to act
She said Mr Gormley had shown "a complete unwillingness" to challenge Fianna Fáil. "On many occasions it wasn't unusual at parliamentary party meetings for John to agree that Fianna Fáil were running rings around us, that we needed to be more forceful in Government and then to fail completely to act," she said on RTÉ Radio's This Week.
"I personally believe that his unwillingness to risk confrontation with Fianna Fáil was linked to the fact that the party is vulnerable electorally and to his concerns about holding to seats."
She said "one of the most upsetting aspects" of the controversy was the comment by deputy leader Mary White that she had threatened to damage the party if she did not get the job. She denied that she was trying to damage the party by criticising the party leadership. "As far as I'm concerned, it's an attempt to try and save the party from what I think is going to be the kind of annihilation it will experience at the next elections unless it begins to take a very good, long, hard look at itself and how it is operating."
EU Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn was "left in no doubt" that she would have to agree to appointing a Green to her cabinet, Ms de Burca said.
While she was aware the commissioner ultimately decided cabinet appointees, "John Gormley assured me that Máire Geoghegan-Quinn had been left in no doubt that if the Green Party were to support her nomination, she would have to agree to this condition".
The Green Party had lobbied for Pat Cox to be Ireland's new EU Commissioner but Fianna Fáil wanted Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, she said. "John Gormley negotiated with them that if the Green Party were to support Máire Geoghegan-Quinn as the candidate for Irish commissioner that in return there would be a guarantee . . . that Máire Geoghegan-Quinn would accept a Green into her cabinet," she said.
She said Mr Gormley told her Mr Cowen had told Ms Geoghegan-Quinn that Green Party support for her nomination was dependent on her making a Green appointment to her cabinet. "John Gormley also informed me that she had accepted this," she said.
She repeated her claim that party leader John Gormley told her she had been "shafted" by Fianna Fáil when she learned that all positions had been filled and he confirmed this.
A spokesman for the Green Party in Government last night said the party had supported Ms de Búrca's candidature as somebody suitably qualified and experienced for the position. "Taoiseach Brian Cowen was also supportive. But commissioner Geoghegan Quinn had other plans and we must accept the independence of an EU commissioner in this and other matters."
Meanwhile, Ms de Búrca said Mr Gormley's failure to insist that Fianna Fáil stood by the agreement was only the most recent example of Fianna Fáil giving the Green Party "the runaround, taking advantage of us . . . taking advantage of our willingness to go along with things because it would appear that we don't want to face them down or to confront them".
Asked about the background to her resignation earlier this month, she said she had "a very serious chat" with Mr Gormley last September because she was increasingly uncomfortable with certain Government decisions.
She cited the example of the Defamation Bill and the way Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern had dealt with Green Party input into the Criminal Justice Bill. Ms de Búrca said she and Mr Gormley had discussed how damaging her resignation would be to the party.