Madam, – Whatever Déirdre de Búrca’s motives for resigning her Seanad seat and Green Party membership, I cannot share her view that Fianna Fáil is running “rings” around the Greens (Home News, February 13th).
The Greens have managed to get a lot of their policies implemented in Government, as an honest appraisal of their performance since entering coalition will attest. John Gormley has succeeded in halting a series of potentially reckless planning decisions all over Ireland since his appointment as Minister for Environment.
The Greens have been responsible for higher building and energy standards that can only benefit the majority of people. Another plus for the Green presence in government is the ESB’s commitment to a Smart Metering programme.
As a campaigner against blood sports, I have been following the Seanad debate on the Dog Breeding Establishments Bill that aims to regulate so-called puppy farms, and that will soon became law.
Hunt kennels and greyhound breeders will also have to register under the legislation and this has prompted shrieks of outrage from both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael members of the Oireachtas, who insist that the Greens are exercising an inordinate degree of influence over Fianna Fáil.
A Fianna Fáil backbencher concerned about the inclusion of hunt kennels in the proposed clampdown on puppy farms warned last week that the Green Party is the “tail wagging the dog”.
This view is echoed by many other members of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael parliamentary parties, and by strongly-worded proclamations on pro-field sport websites alarmed by the Greens’ achievement in securing Cabinet approval for the longstanding Green commitment to banning stag hunting and fur farming.
That doesn’t sound to me like a party that is having rings run around it by its larger coalition partner. Or am I missing something? The Green Party’s major failure, in my view, is an apparent unwillingness or inability to communicate to the public just how much it has achieved since entering Government. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – The assertion by members of the Green Party that the resignation of former member and Senator, Déirdre de Búrca and statements made by her regarding the Green Party and its leader John Gormley may have been motivated by disappointment and self- interest does not necessarily mean that her comments are not accurate. – Yours, etc,