Green Party (Ireland)

Early years

The party's first electoral outing was at the November 1982 general election when seven candidates contested under the Ecology Party banner, winning 0.2% of the vote. Following a name change, they contested the 1984 European elections, with their party founder Roger Garland winning 1.9% in the Dublin constituency. The following year they won their first election when Marcus Counihan was elected to Killarney Urban District Council at the 1985 local elections. The party nationally ran 34 candidates and won 0.6% of the vote.

The party continued to struggle until the 1989 general election when Green Party (as it now named) won its first Dáilseat, when Roger Garland was elected in Dublin South. At the 1992 general election, Garland lost his seat, while Trevor Sargent gained a seat in Dublin North. In the 1994 European election Patricia McKenna topped the poll for the Dublin Constituency and Nuala Ahern won a seat in Leinster. They retained their seats in the 1999 European election although the party lost five councillors in local elections held that year despite an increase in their vote. In 1997 general election the party gained a seat when John Gormley won a Dáil seat in Dublin South-East.

At the 2002 general election the party made a breakthrough, getting six Teachtaí Dála (TDs) elected to the Dáil with 4% of the national vote. However, in the 2004 European election, the party lost both of its European Parliament seats. In the 2004 local elections at county level it increased its number of councillors from 8 to 18 out of 883 and at town council level its number of councillors increased from 5 to 14 out of 744.

Term in government

The Green Party entered government for the first time after the 2007 general election. Although the party's share of first preference votes increased at the general election held on 24 May 2007, the party failed to increase the number of TDs returned. Mary White won a seat for the first time in Carlow–Kilkenny; however, Dan Boyle lost his seat in Cork South-Central.

The Green Party had approached the 2007 general election on an independent platform, ruling out no coalition partners while expressing its preference for an alternative to the outgoing coalition of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats. Neither the outgoing government nor an alternative of Fine Gael, Labour and the Green Party had sufficient seats to form a majority. Fine Gael ruled out a coalition arrangement with Sinn Féin opening the way for Green Party negotiations with Fianna Fáil.

Before the negotiations began Ciarán Cuffe wrote on his blog that "a deal with Fianna Fáil would be a deal with the devil… and [the Green Party would be] decimated as a Party". The negotiations were undertaken by Dan Boyle, Donall Geoghegan (the party's general secretary) and the at that time party Chair John Gormley. The Green Party walked out after 6 days in what Donall Geoghegan later said was due to there not being "enough in [the deal] to allow [the Green Party] to continue". The negotiations restarted on 11 June with a draft programme for government being agreed one day later, which under party rules needed 66% of members to endorse it at a special convention. On 13 June 2007, Green members in the Mansion House, Dublin, voted 86% in favour (441 to 67; with 2 spoilt votes) of entering coalition with Fianna Fáil. The following day, the six Green Party TDs voted for the re-election of Bertie Ahern as Taoiseach.

New party leader John Gormley was appointed as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and Eamon Ryan was appointed as Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. Trevor Sargent was named Minister of State for Food and Horticulture (Sargent later resigned the position in 2010).

Before their entry into government, the Green Party had been vocal supporters of the Shell to Sea movement, the campaign to reroute the M3 motorway away from Tara and (to a lesser extent) the campaign to end United States military use of Shannon Airport. Since the Green Party entered government, there were no substantive changes in government policy on these issues, which meant that Eamon Ryan oversaw the Corrib gas project while he was in office. The Green Party made an inquiry into the irregularities surrounding the project (see Corrib gas controversy) a precondition of government at their last annual conference but changed their stance during post-election negotiations with Fianna Fáil.

The 2008 budget, announced on 6 December 2007, did not include a carbon levy on fuels such as petrol, diesel and home heating oil, which the Green Party had sought before the election. A carbon levy was however introduced in the 2010 Budget. The 2008 budget did include a separate carbon budget announced by Gormley, which introduced new energy efficiency tax credit, a ban on incandescent bulbs from January 2009, a tax scheme incentivising commuters' purchases of bicycles and a new scale of vehicle registration tax based on carbon emissions.

At a special convention on whether to support the Treaty of Lisbon on 19 January 2008, the party voted 63.5% in favour of supporting the Lisbon Treaty fell short of the party's two-third majority requirement for policy issues. As a result, the Green Party did not have an official campaign in the first Lisbon Treaty referendum, although individual members were involved on different sides The referendum did not pass in 2008, and following the Irish Government's negotiation with EU member states of additional legal guarantees and assurances, the Green Party held another special convention meeting in Dublin on 18 July 2009 to decide its position on the second Lisbon referendum. Precisely two-thirds of party members present voted to campaign for a Yes in the referendum. This was the first time in the party's history that it campaigned in favour of a European treaty.

The government's response to the post-2008 banking crisis significantly affected the party's support, and it suffered at the 2009 local elections, returning with only three County Council seats in total and losing its entire traditional Dublin base with the exception of a Town Council Seat in Balbriggan.

In 2010, Déirdre de Búrca, one of two Green Senators nominated by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2007, resigned from the party and her seat, in part due to the party's inability to secure her a job in the European Commission. On 23 February 2010, Trevor Sargent, resigned as Minister of State for Food and Horticulture due to allegations over contacting Gardaí about a criminal case involving a constituent. On 23 March 2010, Ciarán Cuffe was appointed as Minister for Horticulture, Sustainable Travel, Planning and Heritage while the party gained a junior ministerial position with Mary White appointed as Minister for Equality, Human Rights and Integration.

The party supported the passage legislation for EC–ECB–IMF financial support for the Ireland's bank bailout. On 23 January 2011, after dispute with Fianna Fáil over the appointment of cabinet ministers, the Green Party met with Taoiseach Brian Cowen following his resignation as leader of senior coalition partner Fianna Fáil the previous afternoon. The Green Party then announced it was withdrawing from governing the country and took its place on the opposition benches with immediate effect. Green Party leader John Gormley said at a press conference announcing the withdrawal:

For a very long time we in the Green Party have stood back in the hope that Fianna Fáil could resolve persistent doubts about their party leadership. A definitive resolution of this has not yet been possible. And our patience has reached an end.

The government ministerial posts of Gormley and Ryan were reassigned to Fianna Fáil ministers Éamon Ó Cuív and Pat Carey respectively. Green Ministers of State Ciarán Cuffe and Mary White also resigned from their roles.

In almost four years in Government, from 2007 to 2011, the Green Party achieved the passage of civil partnership for same-sex couples, the introduction of major planning reform, a major increase in renewable energy output, and a nationwide scheme of home insulation retrofitting.

Wipeout and recovery

The party suffered a wipeout at the 2011 general election, with all of its six TDs losing their seats, including those of former Ministers John Gormley and Eamon Ryan. Three out of their six incumbent TDs lost their deposits. The party's share of the vote fell below 2%, meaning that they could not reclaim election expenses, and their lack of parliamentary representation led to the ending of state funding for the party.

The candidates in the 2011 Seanad election were Dan Boyle and Niall Ó Brolcháin; neither were elected, and as a result for the first time since 1989, the Greens have no representatives in the Oireachtas.

Eamon Ryan was elected as party leader on 27 May 2011, succeeding John Gormley. Catherine Martin, a former Carrickmacross town councillor, was later appointed deputy leader, while Ciarán Cuffe and Mark Dearey were also placed on the party's front bench.

In the 2014 European election the party received 4.9% of the vote nationally (an increase of 3% on the 2009 result), failing to return a candidate to the European Parliament. In the 2014 local elections the party received 1.6% of the vote nationally. 12 candidates were elected to County Councils, an increase of 9.

In the 2016 Irish general election, the Green Party gained 2 seats, becoming the first Irish political party to lose all seats at an election and win seats at the subsequent election. In the election to Seanad Éireann, Grace O'Sullivan became the first elected Green Party Senator, winning a seat of the Agricultural Panel. She established the Civil Engagement group with five Independent Senators. On 30 May 2016, the Green Party joined the Social Democrats to form a technical group in the Dáil.

Organisation

The National Executive Committee is the organising committee of the party. It comprises the party leader Eamon Ryan, deputy leader Catherine Martin, Chair Roderic O'Gorman, Young Greens representative, Treasurer and ten members elected annually at the party convention.

Leadership

The party did not have a national leader until 2001. At a special "Leadership Convention" in Kilkenny on 6 October 2001, Trevor Sargent was elected the first official leader of the Green Party. He was re-elected to this position in 2003 and again in 2005. The party's constitution requires that a leadership election be held within six months of a general election.

Sargent resigned the leadership in the wake of the 2007 general election to the 30th Dáil. During the campaign, Sargent had promised that he would not lead the party into Government with Fianna Fáil. In the election outcome the party retained 6 Dáil seats, making them the most likely partner for Fianna Fáil. Sargent and the party negotiated a coalition government and at the 12 June 2007 membership meeting to approve the agreement, he announced his resignation as leader.

In the subsequent leadership election, John Gormley became the new leader on 17 July 2007, defeating Patricia McKenna by 478 votes to 263. Mary White was subsequently elected as the deputy Leader. John Gormley served as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government from July 2007 until the Green Party's decision to exit Government in December 2010.

Following the election defeat of 2011, John Gormley announced his intention not to seek another term as Green Party leader. Eamon Ryan was elected as the new party leader, over party colleagues Phil Kearney and Cllr Malcolm Noonan in a postal ballot election of party members in May 2011. Monaghan based former councillor Catherine Martin defeated Down based Dr John Barry and former Senator Mark Dearey to the post of Deputy Leader on 11 June 2011 during the party's annual convention. Roderic O'Gorman was elected party chairperson.

The Green Party had six seats in the Irish parliament but lost them all in the 2011 general election. Party Chairman Dan Boyle and Déirdre de Búrca were nominated by the Taoiseach to Seanad Éireann after the formation of the Fianna Fáil–PD–Green Party government in 2007 and Niall Ó Brolcháin elected in December 2009. De Búrca resigned in February 2010, and was replaced by Mark Dearey. Neither Dan Boyle or Niall O'Brolchain were re-elected to Seanad Éireann in the Seanad election of 2011, leaving the Green Party without Oireachtas representation until the 2016, where they regained 2 Dáil seats.

Irish and European politics

The Green Party is an all-island party, with regional organisations in each of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Green Party in Northern Ireland voted to become a regional partner of the Green Party in Ireland in 2005 at its annual convention, and again in a postal ballot in March 2006.) Brian Wilson, formerly a councillor for the Alliance Party, won the Green Party's first seat in the Northern Ireland Assembly in the 2007 election. Steven Agnew held that seat in the 2011 election.

The Green Party is a member of the European Green Party. Though it previously held a more Eurosceptic stance than is usually articulated by most other green parties in Europe, in 2009 the party backed the Treaty of Lisbon with support from two-thirds of the party.