Minister for Children and Integration Roderic O’Gorman has been elected as the new leader of the Green Party after winning the support of a narrow majority of the members over Pippa Hackett.
Mr O’Gorman won by 984 votes to 912 for the Co Offaly Senator.
He becomes the fourth leader in the party’s history and succeeds Minister for Climate Change and Transport Eamon Ryan who announced last month he was standing down from the role.
Mr O’Gorman said he was “deeply humbled and deeply grateful” and paid tribute to Mr Ryan and outgoing deputy leader Catherine Martin, who he said had “guided our party back from its lowest point in 2011″.
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A former chairman of the party, he has been a TD for Dublin West since 2020 after being first elected as a county councillor in 2014.
Members of the party had been voting online since last Thursday until the poll closed at 6pm on Sunday. A total of 1,896 votes were cast out of an eligible membership of 3,425.
Speaking to the media after the announcement of his victory, Mr O’Gorman said he would not be implementing a reshuffle of Green ministers – meaning that outgoing leader Eamon Ryan and outgoing deputy leader Catherine Martin will remain in Cabinet in their current posts.
“I am extremely confident in the expertise and the knowledge and the ability of our Cabinet Ministers and our junior ministers. They have all done amazing work in their individual departments,” he said.
Senator Hackett and the other Green junior ministers – Malcolm Noonan, Ossian Smyth and Joe O’Brien – will also remain in their current posts
He also denied that the party was divided because of his narrow margin of victory of Ms Hackett – Mr O’Gorman had 72 votes to spare over his rival.
“I believe we had a really strong and vigorous campaign where we explored the opportunities for the party, but also the real challenges that exist,” he said. “I am absolutely confident that after a vigorous debate over the last two weeks, we’re going to unite, we’re going to focus on delivering the final parts of the Programme for Governments and entering into the General Election campaign.”
The new leader also said that he would more directly tackle false claims being made by Opposition TDs on climate change, biodiversity, integration and asylum seekers.
“The degree of stuff being made up is deeply frustrating,” he said. “I will deal with those [who make false claims]. Claims must be on the basis of fact rather on something somebody has read on [social media],” he said.
[ New Greens leader Roderic O’Gorman represents continuity with minimal changeOpens in new window ]
Mr O’Gorman said he was determined that the Government run its full term to allow more Green Party policies to be implemented. He said the party had lost support in rural Ireland, but also in working class areas of Dublin and in regional towns and cities. He indicated the party needed to show that, beyond its core climate change positions, its policies could help and support people in all aspects of their daily lives.
Ms Hackett was first elected to Offaly County Council in 2019 and was elected to the Seanad in 2020, after an unsuccessful bid for a Dáil seat.
She has been the Green’s “super junior” Minister in this Government with responsibility for land use and biodiversity. She based her campaign largely on the fact that the party was failing to convince people in rural Ireland of its message. As a farmer herself, she said the party needed a rural-based leader after having three leaders based in Dublin.
She said it had been a “very healthy leadership contest” and had reinforced her belief in the unity, strength and depth of the party. She praised the new leader saying he had “moved mountains” in his role of Minister since 2020.
Ms Hackett said the party had lost support in the most recent elections. “I want to win all that support back. That involves having strong policies that address the challenges people face in their daily lives,” she said in her concession speech.
The event was held in Bewley’s Cafe on Grafton Street.
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