Candidates battle for title of greener than green

This was an Irish political seminar like no other — with one wannabe politician selling himself to voters as somebody "who has driven several Prius", uses Airtricity, and has worked with Amazonian tribes to help them access legal aid.

The candidate in question is Jan Van de Ven, the leader of Direct Democracy, who, like the two people sitting beside him, is seeking to represent the sprawling constituency of Ireland South as a member of the European Parliament.

One of the other two candidates was a representative of a (somewhat) more mainstream party: Kieran Hartley, formerly of Rethink Pylons and now of Fianna Fáil. Hartley used his opening comments to outline how he was “one of the first in the country to drive a bioethanol car”.

We also learnt that he had built a “passive, A-rated house” and, in a declaration, that could be considered blasphemous to some dyed-in-the-wool Fianna Fáilers, told us he was a former member of An Taisce.

Hartley used the Environmental Pillar’s Environmental Hustings Seminar at Cork’s Metropole Hotel to again call for a moratorium on all windfarm projects until the National Renewable Energy Action Plan is independently assessed.

He said that if elected, he would keep pressure on the EU to continue reducing carbon emissions. Asked how he would strengthen European environmental law, he said “digital mapping was not being carried out in Ireland” and we are “the only EU country to have not done this”.

This was certainly a very green event but, unfortunately, there was no sign of the Green Party’s Grace O’Sullivan.

Fís Nua, the breakaway Green group, had its candidate Donal Ó Ríordáin in situ, however, and when he was asked how he’d defend environmental law, he simply said he’d be “voting with my heart”.

Ó Ríordáin describes himself as a “predominately environmental candidate” but somebody who “wants a change in our debt situation”. He is also actively involved in trying to end the fluoridation of water.

When questioned about whether he would support an EU-wide 55% target for reducing greenhouse emissions, Van de Ven said he’d try and increase the amount of solar energy in Ireland as we are over-reliant on wind.

He also argued that when companies are being assessed financially, they should also be assessed environmentally — a kind of environmental impact assessment that would be taken as seriously as their end-of-year accounts.

Our Fianna Fáil candidate has his eye on China, however. While the Irish are dotting the countryside with wind turbines, the Chinese are building a coal-fuelled power plant every month, he thundered. “We can’t carry the burden for others,” he said.

But it is Ó Ríordáin who faces the biggest battles if elected. Forget about Hartley and the Chinese, Ó Ríordáin wants to take on the farmers.

One of his suggestions for tackling declining biodiversity is “take sheep off barren land”. Confident that he can “come to some agreement with farmers” about removing said sheep, he said he thought he could access compensation for them from some biodiversity funding stream.

If he gets elected, the Irish Examiner thinks he should first talk to Simon Coveney who will quickly mark his cards on that one.