FORMER DUBLIN LORD Mayor Hazel Chu has been elected as the deputy leader of the Green Party. 

Last October, Róisín Garvey resigned from the role which she had held since July 2024. 

Garvey was appointed to the Seanad by Taoiseach Micheál Martin in 2022 but failed to win a seat in the Clare constituency in the 2024 general election.

She also decided against contesting the 2025 Seanad election two months later and it is understood that Garvey has resigned from the party. 

Voting for the new deputy leader role opened on Monday and closed this afternoon.

Chu, a Dublin City councillor, was up against Louth councillor Marianne Butler for the deputy leadership.

Speaking after her election, Chu thanked Butler for the “incredible work she has done for our party” and commended her for her “well run campaign”. 

Chu said she is “deeply honoured by the trust members have placed in me” and that she has a “broad, generous coalition of support from Greens in every part of the country”.

She added that Green Party members want a party that “speaks plainly, organises relentlessly, and delivers real change” and that her job is to “turn that mandate into momentum”.

All paid up members of six month standing were entitled to vote and over 60% of members voted for Chu.

Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman remarked that Chu has “huge experience” and that she will “have an important role in rebuilding Green Party representation around the country”.

O’Gorman also thanked Butler for contesting the campaign added: “She has a long history of activism in this party and I know that this will continue.”

Meanwhile, Butler congratulated Chu and thanked those who voted for her.

She said the campaign was “a very healthy and constructive process for the Green Party” and that she hopes conversations which were raised during her campaign will continue. 

“I look forward to working with our leadership team as we now focus on the upcoming bye-elections and European and local elections in 2029,” Butler added.

O’Gorman has previously remarked that the Green Party is still in “rebuild” mode after last year’s bruising general election.

The party lost all but one of its 12 Dáil seats in the election, with O’Gorman retaining his seat.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Noonan was the sole Green to win a seat in the Seanad election earlier this year.

-With additional reporting from Christina Finn