The latest Irish Times/TNS mrbi poll showing satisfaction with the Government down to 10 per cent was not "totally surprising", Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley told a news conference in Dublin today.
Launching his party’s manifesto for the local elections, he said: “There are three weeks left in this campaign and three weeks is actually an eternity in politics.”
Commenting on the poll results he said: “Given the fact that we have had four budgets, in effect, over the last period of time, people are feeling pain and people are, as I said, angry.
“That is totally understandable but what I’m saying today is that, if people step back from that emotion and begin to think about the future of our country and look at the performance of our candidates and our councillors at local level, I think they will be convinced that the Greens are doing the best job possible, under difficult circumstances.”
Asked if he felt the Green Party had been “contaminated” by the anger of the public towards Fianna Fáil, he said: “There is no doubt that there is anger out there. People are losing their jobs, they are uncertain about their future, they can’t get credit in the banks if they’re small businesses.
“But I would say that anger sometimes can be quite irrational and if they step back from the situation and they ask themselves some fundamental questions - Is it in the best interests now of the country to have instability? Are the Greens doing a good job in government? Are they doing a good job at local level? - I think they will come to the conclusion that, yes, the Greens are performing well.
“Certainly from speaking to my colleagues here who are out on the doors, they tell me that the public are making that distinction, the public are saying very clearly that we need the Greens in there to do a good job in relation to quality of life issues and in particular in relation to planning.”
Asked if he was saying to people that they should “blame Fianna Fáil, not us”, he replied: “No, what I’m saying is, quite simply, ‘Concentrate on our record, we are the Green Party, we’re a party that has done well in government in our own respective portfolios and in particular today I would ask people to concentrate on the performance of our elected councillors.”
When asked if the Greens could “do business” with Fine Gael at some stage in the future, Mr Gormley said: “We’ve always said that we would talk to other parties, always.”
He found it “sometimes very difficult to understand” the distinction drawn between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. “I don’t see a huge difference ideologically at all.”
But he added: “Any other arrangement at the moment is simply hypothetical.”
