FORMER EUROPEAN Parliament president Pat Cox last night commended the “decency and personal integrity” of the Green Party, saying “in a political culture too often found wanting as regards moral compass” it was “no bad personal or political legacy”.
Mr Cox was speaking at the launch of A Deal with the Devil: The Greens in Government,a book by Irish Timespolitical reporter Mary Minihan.
In her book, Minihan tracks the fate of the Green Party following its entry into coalition with Fianna Fáil in 2007.
The book takes its title from comments by Green Party minister of state Ciarán Cuffe who, just days after the 2007 general election, remarked: “Let’s be clear – a deal with Fianna Fáil would be a deal with the devil. We would be spat out after five years and decimated as a party, but . . . would it be worth it?”
Mr Cox described Mr Cuffe’s words as “prescient”.