Greens ‘in government for long haul’ despite concerns
The Dublin Mid-West deputy said the Greens did not threaten to pull out of Government over the medical card controversy, directly contradicting claims by deputy leader Mary White who said they were ready to walk over the issue. “We were prepared to exit Government if there was not a change. I can say that absolutely,” Ms White said on Carlow Kilkenny Radio on Tuesday.
Yesterday, Mr Gogarty told RTÉ radio: “During this whole debate there was criticism of the Green Party saying we were too quite. Some of my colleagues came out and maybe they shouldn’t have, saying we would have been prepared to walk if the issues hadn’t been reversed in medical cards.”
He said: “Can I state at all times we never put a gun to Fianna Fáil’s head. We are in government for the long haul and for the tough decisions.”
Mr Gogarty has written to Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe to express concerns over education cuts in Budget 2009 which will see class sizes increase from 27 children to 28.
He has identified 194 million of savings that could be made by the Government so children would not be effected.
“I did praise Minister O’Keeffe for being firm in the face of pressure from interest groups. But there are certain cuts that will have a very real effect in terms of front line education services obviously class sizes is one issue,” said Mr Gogarty.
He believes the Government may yet make changes to education policies contained in the budget: “There has been a response in relation to the pension issue, there has been a response in relation to the income levy and I anticipate there will be a response in relation to the education cutbacks.”
Asked if he would withdraw from the Government if his concerns about education were not met, Mr Gogarty said: “One thing that’s not going to happen is you are not going to have me or any individual Green TD jumping ship because of the pressure. If we do go we’ll go together.”
His party colleague, Ciarán Cuffe TD, said the medical card fiasco “is only the beginning of a huge challenge to tackle the economic difficulties of Ireland”.
On his blog he wrote there may be a 10 billion hole in the public finances: “It begs the question as to whether we should continue to provide tax relief at source on mortgages and also on private medical insurance.
