Greens believe they are strong enough in Government now to avoid repeat of 2011 electoral wipeout

There was a time when Green Party leader Eamon Ryan liked to quote Samuel Beckett’s famous line from Worstward Ho: “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

The Greens lived every part of the sentence during the fallow years after 2011. It lost all six seats in that general election and, moreover, lost all State funding after its national vote fell to below 2 per cent.

An initially slow, and then accelerated recovery, saw it bounce back towards the end of the last decade. Now the Greens are back in Government, with three senior Ministers, one super junior, and three junior ministers. Its timing, though, is again a little unfortunate, being in Government at a time of big crisis, initially Covid-19 and now the war in Ukraine.

And so, as the party holds its annual think-in in Ennistymon, Co Clare this weekend, the question arises about history repeating itself. Is the Green Party on another kamikaze mission in Government, sacrificing its presence on the national political stage in order to get its agenda through. Sure, the Greens have shown Lazarus-like qualities in the past but it is not a recommended course for any political party that wants to stay relevant to the national discourse.

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On the positive side, the parliamentary party has ironed out the clashes that marked its first 18 months in Government. There has been barely a hint of dissent in the past year.

Two veterans who experienced Government over a decade ago, Ciarán Cuffe (now an MEP) and Dan Boyle (now a councillor in Cork) say that much has changed since 2007.

Cuffe says climate change has moved from the periphery to centre stage. That’s indicated by the historic Climate Change Act, and the ambitious 2030 targets that require a halving of emissions.

“We have a stronger presence in Government,” he says. “Back in 2007, we had a lot of aspiration that did not become reality. Now, the party is succeeding in getting real change made. It’s most visible in public and active travel, but you can also see it in other areas like energy.”

Turning to the current energy crisis, Cuffe says the Greens can offer a lot in terms of “finding a way through it”.

He accepts that people like the idea of change but become less enthusiastic when it involves what they perceive as being personal sacrifice for them. That has been manifested in resistance to moves on agriculture, turf-cutting, transport, cycle lanes, Bus Connects and private transport.

“It’s important to realise we cannot turn the ship around on a sixpence, that these things take time. I think this time around we do not have the level of climate denial we had in the past,” he says.

“Communications is key to getting greener initiatives across the line. One lesson is to spend more time listening to people’s concerns as we move our agenda forward.”

Boyle believes there’s more of an alignment between the economy, environment and energy now than in the past. He said the party is no longer like a “rabbit in the headlights” in power. The party has performed well in Government, he argues, and has learned how to fight its corner and to get things done. Outside traditional Green areas, Roderic O’Gorman has achieved a lot with childcare and mother and baby homes (but has struggled with the huge inflow of refugees and asylum seekers) while Catherine Martin announced another Green aim, the basic income scheme for artists this week.

Yet, the party has struggled to make headway in reducing emissions in real terms and big struggles lie ahead to meet targets in agriculture, offshore energy, transport and forestry.

“In this particular Government we offer innovation and maybe an approach to politics that is not based on short-termism,” says Boyle.

That said, politics is the classic short-term profession and he recognises this. The party could lose some, or all of its seats, in 2025. Boyle argues the party does not give as much weight as others to its own success in electoral terms. In the real world, however, having no TDs or Senators will make it powerless. “We do not see ourselves as lemmings,” reflects Boyle. “Our motivation is to carry on and achieve our agenda.”

To ensure it does not fail again, and to survive as a parliamentary party, it will have to show tangible evidence of successful policies and emissions reductions by 2025, something it struggled to do a decade ago. It has not got there yet but the lessons of 2011 have not been forgotten as it continues to try again.