RODERIC O’GORMAN, THE Green Party’s leader and sole remaining TD, has said the general election was “hugely disappointing”, but the party will rebuild.

Speaking at the Greens’ annual conference in Dublin today, O’Gorman said the meeting provided an “opportunity to regroup, to reflect and to plan our next steps”.

November’s election was a massive blow for the Green Party. After winning 12 seats in the 2020 election, its best ever result, it only managed to keep one seat in 2024.

O’Gorman told delegates in Castleknock the Green Party had “a very successful period in government” but “despite what we’ve achieved, no one here this afternoon is under any illusion about the scale of the loss that we suffered in November”.

It was a very hard day for our party, and it was an incredibly difficult day personally for so many people here.

Despite the “challenge that lies ahead”, O’Gorman said the party also has “good reason to be optimistic”.

He encouraged members to vote for Green candidates in the upcoming Seanad election, namely Malcolm Noonan, Hazel Chu and Ossian Smyth.

In his speech, O’Gorman also sounded an alarm about the incoming government. He noted that, during the election campaign, he voiced his worries “about what a Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael government propped up by independents would look like in terms of policy”.

The Dublin West TD said, according to recent briefings in the media, the incoming government looks set to prioritise local road projects over “large public transport projects of national importance”.

He said Climate Action will likely be “watered down” if the incoming government is “instead focused on implementing a patchwork of local deals, rather than looking out for the national interest”.

‘We knew the risks’ 

Speaking to The Journal ahead of today’s conference, O’Gorman said party members are “extremely disappointed” with how the election turned out, but they are proud of what they achieved in government.

“People knew there was a risk going in [to government], and we’ve seen the consequences of that risk. I suppose people also see the fact that other centre-left parties have stepped away from talks.

“That was a point that we were making throughout, that the Greens are the party that is prepared to take the risk, to go into government, to deliver on these sort of policies,” he said. 

Yesterday, the Social Democrats, who have all but walked away from the prospect of entering into government, released a statement saying there must be no watering down of climate action ambitions in the new programme for government. 

What does O’Gorman make of such statements from the SocDems?

O’Gorman told The Journal ”the only place you can protect those sort of initiatives and indeed increase their ambition is in government”. 

“I have a real worry about what a government supported by Independents are going to do. I think we’ve already heard the kind of briefings about cutting the budget from big public transport projects and moving it over to localised roads projects.

“I have a real nervousness about what the next government are going to do,” he added.

The Green Party still has an important role to play in Irish politics, he said, adding: “We’re in the Dáil, we’ll hopefully be in the Seanad, and we have strong councillors around the country. 

“So, we have strong foundations and will rebuild the party from the ground up.

“We topped the poll in the locals across Dublin because people recognise the effectiveness of the Green Party at a local level. Someone will have to hold the next government to account on climate action and that someone is us.”

With reporting by Órla Ryan