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GREEN PARTY LEADER Roderic O’Gorman has said his remark that he would be “a bollocks” when holding the incoming government to account was a “little bit tongue in cheek”.
O’Gorman, the Greens’ sole remaining TD, made the colourful comment when speaking at his party’s annual conference in Dublin yesterday.
The outgoing Children’s Minister told delegates about a recent exchange he had after an appearance on a radio panel with two other government TDs. They apparently told O’Gorman he will “always be very reasonable” in opposition.
The Dublin West TD said he replied by saying: ‘Guys, I’m going to be a bollocks’. Members of the conference laughed as he recalled the light-hearted moment.
When asked about his remarks on RTÉ’s This Week today, O’Gorman said: “It was a conversation I had with a couple of former colleagues who will now be part of the new government.
A little bit tongue in cheek, but I think it does reflect the different position that I and the Green Party find ourselves in now.
“We were part of government for the last four and a half years. We worked hard, we delivered on the key elements of the Programme for Government.
“But in the next Dáil, I’ll be part of the opposition and it’ll be my role to hold the government to account.”
Climate concerns
O’Gorman has recently raised concerns about the fact climate change may not be as much of a priority for the incoming government as the Greens are no longer in power.
He said he will call out the new government – set to comprise Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and a number of independents – if they don’t follow through on issues such as emissions reduction targets and commitments to invest in public transport.
“I’ll be a strong voice where I see the new government making mistakes, or I see them failing to implement commitments.”
O’Gorman yesterday told around 400 delegates at his party’s conference in Castleknock that the general election was “hugely disappointing” but the Greens will rebuild.
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.
Government formation talks involving Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and independent TDs are continuing this weekend.
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I was looking at the lovely Arlenes FB page yesterday and there was a lot of criticism for her and a lot of it coming from unionists. Maybe the UUP will gain somewhat from this controversy.
All politicians are over paid lazy idiots who have a completely stupid public who vote for them. Imagine Noonan should have had a vote of no confidence put down by Sinn Fein since the vulture fund program yesterday. They are all the same.
Foster had a go at SF for causing instability and putting the peace process in jeopardy and called it irresponsible! She must be very peed off considering that the DUP sees that as their job if not divine right. They can’t stand the fact that they are the ones this time who are at fault and they can’t play the sanctimonious better than thou card.
The now updated story is that she now wants an investigation! Sorry Arlene but I don’t think that it will do you any good. SF called your bluff and now you are trying to cover your tracks. The DUP have spent so long on their high horses that they forgot that sooner or later they are bound to fall off them. Now they are in the shite and should get used to it because they have thrown enough of it around for long enough.
If the other NI parties have any sense they will find out who it was benefited from the RHI scheme and I would be willing to bet that the vast majority are nice rich DUP donors. It won’t be them who will feel the pain of cuts to services that the lower income DUP voters will have to face because of the £400 million shortfall due to the RHI.
@Diarmuid: “when the continued existence of the PIRA terrorist group was confirmed.”
dermo, you were trying that one on a year ago before your last account was banned. You kept postig PART of a sentence from a statement to ‘prove’ your point.
Have you used your time in the wilderness to come up with actual proof?
It’s very hard to sympathise with arlene foster in this debacle. Every other party asked her to stand aside temporarily and without predjuice, but instead she has spent the last month pointing fingers and making ridiculous inflammatory statements. It had to be brought to a head, and it was by yet another (and hopefully not final) statesmanlike act from Martin McGuinness.
The Lady who oversaw and ran the show is looking for an inquirery into it. Am I missing something here. Has she not thrown enough money over the side of a cliff..
@Chris Kirk. I hear you. Tho it would be only right for her to put her hands up and admit responsibility and then hand in her resignation. That way it would save money that would be pumped into inquiry. Also possibly she may be able to walk away with some dignity. POSSIBLY….
The arrogance of Arlene Foster is astounding someone who has not the humility to resign after such a misappropriation of taxpayers money has no place in politics. Now the proverbial has hit the fan she’s not so smug trying to back peddle from the position she maintained only a few days ago. She might wanna burn all the evidence while she’s the chance.
Don’t worry fg/DUP will do their best to put the blame on sf when it was all the parties who have called for her to step aside but after watching the program last night on rte she should not be the only one who should go but that won’t happen
Remember Arlene, pride comes before a fall. And by the looks of it your going to be hitting the ground mighty hard when your hot air balloon comes crashing down to earth
Will an election actually solve anything? The DUP will throw out a load of sectarian nonsense on the campaign trail and their core voters will just lap it up like they always do. SF have no viable opposition so their seats will be largely unchanged. So where do they go from there?
It would be more of an innovation if those who supported removing any cap on the free heating subsidy were obliged to pay the money back. But that’s too responsible a move for politicians to consider. At lrast they haven’t brought in consultants to explain where the scam wasted public taxes.
Her bluff was called and now the pennys finally dropped for her. She’s only now realising that she would have been better off standing aside. This was she gets turfed out by SF.
Not just in NI but in Europe the whole bio energy wood scheme is not green at all, but is even worse than coal in terms of emissions and involves the deforestation of millions of trees in US and Europe, trees that had they not been cut would have acted to curb emissions. As regards Foster all she had to do was step aside for a few weeks but instead chose to bring NI back to the brink of madness and create a vacuum for the hard men to strut their stuff.
Arlene Foster should have walked long go the world knows that but look at the state of her she wouldn’t walk far fair play to Martin I will vote Sinn Fein next time for sure..
If she had done the honourable thing and voluntarily stepped aside for the duration of the enquiry she would have enhanced her reputation all round if she was found to have done no wrong. The question so is what is she hiding that compelled her not to step aside temporarily?
About Time for those politicians in Northern Ireland to grow up and leave baby infants class. The day of handholding by politicians outside the jurisdiction of the six counties is over. Surely they cannot expect another big effort by the US government and the UK government to force them to become reconciled. So much effort has already gone into the establishment of the Northern Ireland executive.
@Irish big fellow: Well at least they won’t have to concern themselves about the EU and brexit negotiations now being dictated by Theresa May. If the parties don’t sort themselves out in the north then perhaps the UK government could cut their wages and put an end to sectarian politics.
Provisional SF proving again how unsuitable they are for Govt, letting DUP off the hook and letting all the people down rather than dealing with the issues of BREXIT
@Stephen Kearon: In fairness this is a guy who worked for for Dick Roche while FF were destroying the country and inviting the trokia in the door, your party does have one thing in common with the DUP though, the penchant for fondling in the greasy till – seriously a person like you lecturing anybody about their suitability for government given how your lot behaved in power is laughable – as the man said it’s like the hunchback of Notre Dame giving a lecture on good posture.
Mother of god, if Mary Loo spent as much time worrying about what is going on in the 26 counties she might find there are far more pressing matters than a bunch of self serving, sense of entitlement clowns up north making idiots of themselves. The sight of the entire SF parliamentary gathered around a Mike outside the dail this evening commenting on northern rubbish made my blood boil. Gob$@ites the lot of them
The realities of economic situation will push the drive for unification, judging by the speed at which some in the north have rushed to get Irish passports that realisation seems to have already set in.
@Mr Phil Officer: Where have you been Phil, the question over a proposed United Ireland has been on everyones lips since brexit was announced. Now we can see how stupid the idea is……
@Val Martin: I don’t think it ends there Val, according to the leader of the NI farmers they have signed contracts for the RHI scheme and will expect to be compensated for the cost of installing the expensive biomass boiler systems if the contracts are withdrawn……Arlene Foster was a solicitor in her previous life.
It would be great if Brokenshire ordered a full public enquiry of his own volition. Let’s not forget that neither Sinn Fein or DUP want that, but every other party and the public are calling for it. The NI legislation is nearly 99% identical to the GB scheme, with the main difference being the omission of cost controls by a removal of one paragraph.
@Crom Cruach: Indeed, several MP’s in Westminster today are now calling for it and Brokenshire acknowledged their calling saying that if the parties can’t settle their differences over the coming days then he will call an election. This in effect will allow the UK government to investigate the norths RHI scheme along with everything else the NI executive was doing. Arlene Foster might then wish she played the game instead of the hard ball.
Agree McGuiness had fair reason to stand down but could this be a shrewd move by the Shinners? Triggering an election as anti-Brexit sentiment grows. Remember NI voted to remain. Interesting to see the debate that could be sparked on the door steps, you can imagine Sinn Fein will drive a pro ‘new’ Europe approach potentially putting the Unionists in an awkward position clinging to the coattails of Brexit that, by that time, starts to unravel.
@Congress Tart:
To paraphrase it..a scheme to promote the use of wood pellets for heating which basically paid out £1.50? for every £spent..and lead to the ludicrous situation where large empty building and barn’s etc were being heated to turn a tidy profits. while the taxpayers in NI have been caught to pay the projected overspend of about £400,000,000..whilst people of both communities are suffering fuel poverty..kind of clusterf##& that normally has the handprints’ of democratic parties like FG/FF all over it..puts the money wasted on electronic voting in the hapenny place..but doesn’t look bad when compared to IW..
@Kieran OKeeffe: That seems to be the gist of it, besides which it turns a tidy profit for Balcas the supplier of biomass wood pellets.
Seeing as Leinster House is a biomass customer of Balcas, I wonder did they benefit from the RHI scheme….big empty barn like.
I See Mary Lou Is Back,She Was On Sick Leave When Gerry Adams Was Being Questioned About The Murder Of Prison Officer Mr. Stack.. A Fianna Failer Who Looks Like A Monica Lewinsky Distant Relative…
@Phil Swan; I hope someone got you a set of knitting needles and pink elastic leg bloomers at xmas to match that bi tch of an attitude you have there!!!!
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