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GREEN PARTY POLITICIAN Ciarán Cuffe will contest the leadership election in the European Green party later today.
The contest is being held at the Convention Centre in Dublin city where the European Greens, which represents over 400 elected environmental and green politicians across Europe, is holding its 39th Annual Congress.
Cuffe previously served as a junior minister in the transport, environment and agriculture portfolios, respectively, and served one term as a Dublin MEP in the European Parliament.
He took a brief step back from politics after he lost his seat during the European elections in June but is now seeking to be one of two politicians elected to lead the European party, replacing French Senator Mélanie Vogel and Austrian MEP Thomas Waitz.
Speaking to The Journal yesterday, Cuffe said: “I’ve really enjoyed the last five years of being involved in legislation and policy making at a European level. I would like to continue with it for the time begin.”
Cuffe said that he believes his election would have a positive impact on the domestic Green party, in context of the results of the most-recent general election. He added that he wants to continue, as co-chair, with the work of his green colleagues in Europe.
He ruled out a potential bid for the Seanad in the next number of months. Asked about building the Greens’ influence back at home and abroad Cuffe said: “It won’t happen overnight.”
He said that the European party must first focus on tackling issues that are currently at the centre of people’s lives at the minute such as cost of living, housing and security.
The veteran politician, who was first elected as councillor to Dublin City Council in 1991, said it was important that the European Greens remain “involved” with European legislation.
He is was it was particularly important that the 57 Green MEPs play a key role in the implementation of recommendations from recent reports by the European Commission on the single market, competitiveness and security.
At a press conference before the beginning of the Congress yesterday, Irish Green leader Roderic O’Gorman said his party were welcoming their European colleagues at “the end of a very difficult week”.
O’Gorman is the sole-remaining TD following last weekend’s general election. He told reporters that he has already begun rebuilding the party since then.
“I know what we need to do. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I’m absolutely committed to doing it,” he said.
He added that the party will continue to have support from the State, due to the party securing more than 2% of the vote, and will also be assisted by their European colleagues.
O’Gorman told The Journal that he believes the Greens do have the energy to make a comeback, compared to when he was chair of the party after it was wiped out following the 2011 general election.
“In 2011 you know, we were on our knees. We’d come out of a government that had an awful history at that period of Irish politics and Irish economics had suffered.
“It’s a very different party now. We’re intensely proud of what we did over the last four-and-a-half years. We went in with our eyes open. We knew there was a risk. We paid the price.
“But I haven’t heard anyone across the party in the last week say we shouldn’t have done it,” he added. O’Gorman told reporters that the Green Party’s support from European colleagues is ever more evident in Cuffe’s decision to run.
Cuffe, similarly, believes the party would help to revitalise the party if he is elected this evening. He agreed with O’Gorman that the party could’ve “used our elbows” a bit more to own certain pieces of legislation when in government.
He added, if elected, he would like to be a “voice for smaller parties with our European colleagues”.
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Bonuses all round for the Irish Water top brass. Hundreds of millions being handed over to them and they can’t fix the simplest of things. Can you just imagine handing over your hard earned money to those wasters?
@David Corrigan: we do already hand our hard earned money over to them
@CP: True CP. But they wanted more.
@David Corrigan: they are funded by central exchequer , your taxes, not a magic money tree.
@David Corrigan: you do that with each pay packet…
@David Corrigan: Irish water is funded through the Exchequer via General Taxation, SF and other opposition parties pressured the government into it. In fairness Irish water, they have being in exsistance 12 years and have got through a huge amount of work. They took over a national service with a crumbling infrastructure. A infrastructure was was long ignored and underfunded by every county council in the country. I’d say the money spent by IW over the last 10 years if far higher than the previous 50 years before that.
@David Corrigan: hi David, hate to be a bore but could you detail your simple fix and associated costs and timeliness for completion please.
@Liam23: What utter BS. MM, then leader of the opposition, called for the suspension of water charges in exchange for a confidence and supply agreement with FG in 2016. Nothing to do with SF or ‘ other opposition parties’. As usual every siht show, in every sector, in this country is down to FFG.. nobody else.
Shush with these sort of articles, the public have bought into our “it’s all the farmers fault” mantra, they don’t need to know it their own waste their drinking.
@P. V. Aglue: “An ecosystem is a relatively self-contained community of interacting organisms and the environment they live in, and interact with. There is a flow of energy within an ecosystem and nutrients within it are recycled. There are both living (biotic) components and non-living (abiotic)components within an ecosystem”
2030??
Are they kidding?
This is a serious risk to public health.
Newport, Co. Mayo, has increased in population, has more “bums on seats” and the raw sewage is piped out a short distance into Clew Bay only for the tides and currents to bring it all floating back up the Blackoak river every day. On a high tide the discharge bubbles up the drains in the streets and houses near the water and I don’t need to describe the putrid odour. Fishing, swimming or kayaking is impossible.
She said 16 towns and villages emitting raw sewage every day in Ireland. I think she’s taking the p is, there are that many in every county. But they’ll keep blaming the farmers a handy scrap goat.There are 9 villages within 10 miles from me, 3 of them have treatment plants, the rest store it up and let it off by night, or some of them at high tide
@Max: It’s the chemicals that seep into the water, pray tell how that is anything but farmers’ fault?
@Brian D’Arcy: there’s more nitrogen in the atmosphere than there’ll ever be in water
@P. V. Aglue: does it poison waterways while suspended in the atmosphere?
The state can pollute to it’s hearts content but there’s blue murder if the farmer puts a foot wrong. It’s high time the state officials got the same treatment the farmers have been subjected to for many years now.
Green party taxes….the hypocrisy!
How many workers does it take to change a light bulb? None. We have an essential street light out of order for 3 years in Dublin. Where are our taxes really going?
Also in skerries. Half a km right of shenick. There’s a stream there. It’s awful smelly.
@Argus Romsworth: and loughrea in Co. Galway. Raw sewerage flowing into the local river for the last 60 years and from the “new” treatment plant since it was opened. How many more are omitted from the list?
Imagine the private sector faced such scrutiny.
Imagine fining yourself? Which is what we are essentially doing. How quickly would you change your ways? If UE can’t be bothered to fix these problems in a timely manner, then I’m all for using my tax monies to employ someone who can. It’s like the Metro, China said they would build and manage it, but we refused. If we can’t do something ourselves without wasting billions on it, it might be time to hold up our hands and admit defeat, then commission somebody who can get the job done.
How can I swim in the rivers with disgusting sewage!? A disgusting disgrace
Not to mention what comes out of Mary Lou !
@Dave c: Yawn, must have taken you all day to think that up.
Problem all across Europe. I saw raw sewerage coming out of the overflows on the street in Lanzarote while I was there a few weeks ago
@Peter Byrne: I think that was the volcanic Ash.. the people are very clean in lanzarote
Longford , includes pharmaceutical waste
Stopping the raw sewage from Leinster House should be the priority!
The usual NGO mouth pieces have traps sewn shut today.
Blame climate change that’s the green media answer to issues they report on, a but the green politicians tend to be looking the other way on this one.
Government is the problem
Some KIP
have your say