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Green shenanigans
07 March 2010 By Niamh Connolly, Political Correspondent
The Green Party has been stepping on landmines at every turn recently, but last week’s deal for rotating ministries signalled a bizarre twist to the current controversies surrounding the party.
A plan for the party’s leader, John Gormley, to stand down at mid-term to allow Dun Laoghaire TD Ciarán Cuffe a spell as environment minister raised eyebrows - even among the party’s own members.
Following the 2007 general election, a deal was agreed by a parliamentary party intent on eluding the trappings of power, and the perils of a Green minister becoming too cosy with Fianna Fáil.
But there is a thin line between being cheerfully unconventional and plain outlandish. The indulgence of rotating ministries to give every TD a go in a cabinet mired in economic crisis fell into the latter category, in the eyes of the public.
Nobody can have any doubt that the Greens do things differently, and that the party’s unorthodox approach to politics is a unique selling point for the environmentally conscious, as well as for younger voters.
A mid-term reshuffle of ministries is hardly unusual in government - provided it is packaged and sold as such - and few could have predicted the extent of the meltdown back in 2007. Furthermore, this was a party which only elected a leader in 2001.
However, the idea of the Green Party leader volunteering to stand down from cabinet looks juvenile while the very stability of government is in question - especially if its aim is simply to shore up Cuffe’s electoral prospects.
‘‘The biggest problem was that the story broke on the back of three weeks of relentless political turmoil, when we didn’t play our strongest card," said one party source.
The silence from Gormley and Cuffe following initial reports of the deal suggested that Gormley had been caught unawares by the leaks to TV3.
It also suggested that Gormley had no intention of proceeding with the arrangement at this time, with his cabinet colleague, Eamon Ryan, insisting he knew nothing about any deal. However, doubts about its very existence were dispelled for some party insiders, when media reports spoke with authority about the precedence of the German Green Party rotating ministries. It was a giveaway.
Gormley’s respect for the German Greens, in particular former leader Joschka Fischer, was well known inside the party.
A crucial aspect of the rotation plan back in 2007 was the promise of a second Green junior ministry by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Under the deal, Carlow-Kilkenny TD Mary White would take over Trevor Sargent’s junior ministry, but this fell foul of Sargent’s unexpected resignation. Depending on the circumstances, the second junior ministry would go to Gormley or Paul Gogarty, education spokesman.
If the leak was timed to make the parliamentary party look ludicrous, it was certainly achieved. Sections of the party were convinced it was leaked from people outside the party who wanted to destabilise Gormley. The party is now grappling with two leaks that have been politically damaging in the space of two weeks, including the disclosure of the letter sent by Sargent to the gardaí in relation to an alleged assault.
Suspicions about the leaks to TV3 last week are centred on the bitter feud with former senator Déirdre de Búrca, who left the party denouncing Gormley for not standing up to Fianna Fáil. She later accused Gormley of delaying a report on the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), on the grounds that it would have serious implications for the larger government party. De Búrca did not return calls last week to The Sunday Business Post.
The leadership can only hope that internal rows will have abated before its national convention at the end of the month.
Cuffe would be the beneficiary of any changes in ministries, though few insiders will even countenance the notion that he would have forced Gormley’s hand by leaking to the media. ‘‘It’s just not his style," was the repeated response from party insiders. ‘‘Ciarán is as reasonable a person as you could possibly meet, and he’s not the type to throw a strop," one source said.
Cuffe was the only person who could get Gormley out of the scrape by immediately dismissing suggestions that he would be taking the leader’s place in Environment, but he declined to make a statement.
Cuffe’s claim to a ministry is seen as justified in some quarters, on the grounds that he is the only parliamentary party member who co-founded the Green Party - then known as the Ecology Movement of Ireland - in 1981.
On the face of it, Gormley’s choices were clear: he could have either dismissed the deal as inappropriate in the current circumstances and risked a rift with his party colleague, or he could have honoured the deal with Cuffe and stepped down.
He could have also attempted to use the unexpected crisis to try to secure the mooted super-junior post from Taoiseach Brian Cowen to allow him to stay in cabinet, or attempted to prise a second junior ministry for Cuffe. This seemed to have been the avenue chosen by Gormley in negotiations with Cowen last week. In such a scenario, the obvious candidate for Cuffe’s chief whip position would have been the recently resigned Sargent.
The affair was construed in some quarters as a rift between Gormley and Cuffe that was only made public because of the de Búrca conflict. But the chief whip’s personal attributes and his failure to clarify immediately the question of the rotating ministry feeds suspicions that Cuffe and Gormley were cooperating to extract the maximum concessions from Cowen.
Meanwhile, the notion of the Greens securing either a super-junior or second junior post - considering it has only six TDs - has irked sections of Fianna Fáil, particularly since the Greens were so vociferous in calling for a reduction in junior ministers from 20 to 15.
A super-junior post has been suggested for the Department of the Taoiseach with specific responsibility for reform of the public services, and Fianna Fáil junior ministers, such as Dara Calleary and Dick Roche, have been linked to the post. The Greens are, however, probably over-reaching on this post, whatever about the second junior position. The PDs previously had two senior and two junior posts in coalition with Fianna Fáil.
But not all backbenchers are ruling out new opportunities for the Greens.
Fianna Fáil deputy Chris Andrews said he would have no problem if it helped to shore up trust between the parties.
‘‘They’re in a sticky situation of their own making, but we have to work together, and I wouldn’t be too uptight about it," Andrews said. ‘‘We have to keep building trust, and if it brings stability to government and the country, it’s a small price."
Amid monthly CSO jobless figures and record bank losses, the Greens’ internal machinations appear trite and self-obsessed, and naturally the opposition parties enjoyed their predicament.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny accused Green TDs of trying to feather their own nests before the next election, while Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore ribbed the Greens about ‘‘crop rotation’’.
Labour was, however, cautious not to criticise the deal, since one of its own former leaders, Dick Spring, proposed a rotating Taoiseach in discussions with then Fine Gael leader John Bruton in 1992.Some sources in Labour were also not discounting suggestions that Gilmore would have a stint as Taoiseach in any future coalition government with Fine Gael.
If the Green leadership emerges from this tight spot with a super-junior post or a second junior, it may have been worth last week’s embarrassment. But the entire episode has squandered significant political capital with the electorate. It’s been one high drama after another so far this year, and none of the recent controversies is likely to pay political dividends.
The Greens’ hasty vote of confidence in former Fianna Fáil minister Willie O’Dea felt grubby to supporters, many of whom said that the timing of the story about rotating ministries was plain embarrassing. The party was still reeling from having lost a junior minister two weeks ago, when a question mark arose over the future of its party leader’s position in cabinet.
Sargent recently said that Gormley had a ‘‘spine of steel’’ when it came to dealing with Fianna Fáil. He may need it when he faces questions at the national conference as to why members were left in the dark about a deal to rotate ministries.
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