Other legislation likely to be shelved

THE Finance Bill aside, the Greens had hoped to pass three key pieces of legislation prior to pulling out of Government.

Each of these bills was dear to Green hearts and their implementation would have played well with their base and better justified their decision to stay in Government so long. But in making their decision to leave coalition, the Greens dashed any hopes supporters had of seeing those three bills implemented.

THE BILLS WERE:

Climate change bill: Tackling climate change was the single biggest reason the Greens went into coalition. As party leader John Gormley said in July 2007: “We chose to enter Government because, quite simply, we don’t have the luxury of time on our side when it comes to climate change. It is the biggest issue for this party, for this Government, for this country and for humanity at large.”

Last month, the Greens finally published their ambitious climate change bill, which set out a ‘robust’ basis to tackle the issue, with national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2020, 2030 and 2050. But the bill will now be shelved and may not feature highly on any new government’s list of priorities.

Corporation donations bill: The Greens wanted to ban corporate donations and clean up politics. Mr Gormley also envisaged this bill would reduce the amount of trade union donations that Labour could rely on. But the Greens never even got round to publishing the bill, let alone attempting to get it through the Dáil.

Dublin Mayor bill: The idea was simple: give the capital its own mayor with strong powers, along the lines of London, and see if that made for better administration. If so, the Greens envisaged widening this mayoral model to other cities. The bill has started its way through the Dáil, but will now be put on hold. It’s likely the next government will shelve it indefinitely.