Uphill struggle for fresh Green face

“WE’RE going to end up paying for air the way the Greens are going,” was the doorstep response of one voter to a request from Cork North West Green Party candidate Mark Collins to consider him in the upcoming election.

Vincent Crowley, a resident of the well-heeled Limewood estate in Ballincollig, 12km west of Cork city, reckons the Greens are too interested in taxing everyday commodities and he holds them personally responsible for ruining car sales. This is a reference to changes to the VRT system, brought in at the Greens’ insistence, linking car tax to CO2 emissions and resulting in cars with larger engines typically attracting high tax.

“We’re going to end up driving our two cars into the ground over your policy,” Vincent said. He holds no truck with the notion of electric cars, although Mark does his best to defend the technology as the cleanest and greenest way forward.