Green Party town councillor Pat Kavanagh has resigned from the Greens because of the party’s support for the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). She said “this is not the party I signed up to and it no longer represents my position”.
Including Ms Kavanagh, the Greens have 17 town or urban district councillors, of whom just three are city or county councillors.
In a resignation letter to the party’s general secretary she said “unfortunately I can no longer stand over certain decisions made on behalf of the Green Party at Government level, or justify them to myself or my constituents, particularly in relation to the Nama Bill, appointments to State boards and the national pensions’ framework”.
Suspension of Metro rejected
A proposal to suspend the development of Metro North and reinvest the money in bus services was rejected by the Green Party after a heated debate. Gary Fitzgerald, Dublin Central and North West, who proposed the motion described Metro North as the “Bertie Bowl of transportation projects”, and said the money should be invested in bus networks across all of the State.
Motion for greater TD accountability
The Oireachtas register of TDs’ and senators’ interests should be extended to include liabilities as well as assets, delegates agreed.
A motion from Mayo and Wicklow Greens said that in the move to greater accountability from public representatives and given the property boom and bust, it would be proper “to extend the declaration of members’ interests to their liabilities as well as their assets so that the nation can be sure that none of our representatives are hostage to undue pressures or commitments with respect to financial institutions”.
Travellers as ethnic group backed
Delegates backed a motion at the Green Party convention to recognise Travellers as an ethnic group in line with legislation in Britain and Northern Ireland.
Roderic O’Gorman, speaking for proposer of the motion Patrick Nevin, who was unable to attend, said Britain had recognised Travellers as an ethnic group since the mid-1990s. “That was one of the key elements of the Good Friday Agreement, that Northern Ireland would have an equivalent human rights protection from the Republic and Britain.” He added that “recognising this is key to the Green party’s ideals about equality”.