Ireland's Green party wins 6 seats.

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday May 20, 2002 19:17 by Joe Murtagh joemurtagh2001 at yahoo dot ie

A turning point for Ireland's environmental lobby.

Ireland's green party won 6 seats at this weekends 2002 general election. Twice the amount predicted by political pundits. Their success can be attributed to two factors; A growing frustration with the previous coalition governments environmental policy (or lack of) and fallout from strategic voting.

The hidden story behind the 2002 Irish elections was the success of the green party.

Previously their electoral performance has been hampered by a lack of environmental awarness, a reluctance to vote for a party which might never see power, and a post civil war pattern of voting which saw the two predominant parties (Fianna Fail and Fine Gael) dominating constituencies while leaving the scraps for a rainbow of parties to fight over.

With Fine Gael the main opposition party failing to act as a credible opponent to the government voters looked elsewhere. With Fianna Fail suspected (inhindsight rightly) of only needing a few votes for a coalition government the greens became in the minds of a few as an outside bet as a future coalition party.

But it was issues that pursuaded voters. Increasingly the public seems irked at the inability for the ruling political parties to even make a start on a wide number of environmental problems which have led to E.U. censure. Even, as in the case of recycling, where there exist policies which are cost effective government policies are slow and lack critical momentum. A large windfarm is about all the government has to show for five years and it was largely the result of private enterprise.

Voters turned to the greens who have campaigned among other things, against genetically modified crops, against corporate donations and for the development and of waste management, and environmentally sound transportation strategies.

A recent high publicity campaign by Ali Hewson urging the British government to shut down Sellafield added to the growing public importance placed on green issues.

While it looks unlikely that Fianna Fail will consider the greens as a coalition partner, their additional members in the Dail will focus more attention on important issues.

Moreover the greens will be hoping that the public now views them as a viable alternative party, and will give them in future national and local elections, first rather than second preference votes.