‘Senior hurling’ stint in Govt will stand to Greens
The Green Party was wiped out in local government in Galway in June’s local election – it lost two city councillors and one county councillor – but its chairperson is confident it can turn its fortunes around in the upcoming general election.
Senator Pauline O’Reilly, the party’s national Director of Elections and candidate in Galway West, believes voters will reward the Greens for the pro-climate agenda they pursued in Coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
“I don’t believe we will be wiped out. I think a lot of the pundits are saying that they’d be surprised if we were,” she said.
Twelve Green TDs and five senators are among its 43 candidates selected to contest every constituency in the country, including former city councillor Martina O’Connor in Roscommon/Galway and Eoin Madden in Galway East. But Ms O’Reilly declined to speculate how many seats they expect to return.
“We don’t have a target number of seats to get back, but we have target seats, and we’re treating them all the same,” she said.
“What happens with the Greens is we’re hanging in there for the last seat. So, you can’t write any of the constituencies within that target group off. Look at Malcolm Noonan in Kilkenny/Carlow. He was eighth in terms of first preferences, 6.7% of first preference votes, and he got over the line.
“I got 6% of first preference votes, (in Galway West in 2020). The vote was split with the Social Democrats. There was 12% between the two of us, and neither myself nor the Soc Dems got in,” she added.
With no Soc Dem candidate yet declared in Galway West, the Knocknacarra-based candidate is hoping to attract ‘soft green’ left votes.
Appearances on Virgin Media’s late night politics show, and regular contributions to RTÉ radio and television shows, have also boosted her profile.
“People know me. I have that visibility. I go to doors with older people sitting watching television, and they will have seen me on TV the night before,” she said.
Senator O’Reilly claimed credit for a host of measures introduced by Government, too, including the introduction of free HRT (hormone replacement therapy) this January.
“That was my motion. Even the Labour Party congratulated me online, and said all the men were taking credit for my motion,” she said.
“I do the things I say I’m going to do, I’m passionate about those things, and I’m willing to go into Government, which others aren’t, and those are the things that make me stand out,” insisted O’Reilly.
Critics blame the Greens for everything they feel is wrong with the country, and even the two Civil War parties use them as a mudguard, but O’Reilly is unapologetic. “I stand over our record,” she said.
“Everybody knows you can’t get everything. Majority Governments have promised to do things and not delivered. But we went in, in a minority, and you have people like Michael Healy Rae saying we were the tail that wagged the dog.
“We have shifted things. We got the Climate Act. We got emissions down by 7% last year. There are 1,000 new homes getting retrofitted a week, and 600 houses getting solar panels every week because we took off the VAT. I had a Bill removing the need for planning permission for solar panels. I put a feasibility study for Light Rail into the Programme for Government, that’s why it’s there.
“We have seven new services on the train from Galway to Hueston, a 700% increase in people using rural buses – the Greens brought that in. There’s progress on cycle lanes but it should be more in Galway.
“People in Galway need to send a signal that they want these things by voting for a Green TD, which sends a signal to other parties that there is a vote there for climate action,” she said.
Mention of the Kerry Independent TD, who is allergic to the Greens, begs the question whether Eamon Ryan and Co are ruining rural Ireland.
“Michael Healy Rae said, ‘In fairness to the Greens they’ve done what they said they were going to do’. The Healy Raes don’t like what we said we were going to do, and don’t like that we’ve done it.
“But it is untrue to say we have ruined rural Ireland. We haven’t created the climate problem, we’re trying to fix it, by putting money in people’s pockets and trying to provide services,” she said, namechecking Connecting Ireland, which has expanded rural bus services, and 400 farmers switching to organics in 2024.
She’s convinced the party’s recent ‘senior hurling’ stint in Government has persuaded voters “the Greens are willing to roll up their sleeves”.
“It’s not just talk, it’s action . . . I don’t want to leave politics feeling I haven’t done absolutely everything, because it really matters to me that climate action is taken,” she added.
Pictured: Pauline O'Reilly: 'We haven’t created the climate problem, we’re trying to fix it.'