Boyle hopes return of a ‘green voice’ to city council will provide flood defence alternative

A “green voice” on Cork City Council will provide the city with a flood defence alternative to one of the OPW’s “worst works of butchery”, Green Party veteran Dan Boyle said.

The former city councillor, former senator and TD, who played a key role in negotiating the Green Party’s historic coalition with Fianna Fáil in 2007 and in the party’s decision to pull out of government in February 2011, was speaking yesterday at he confirmed he will be among five Green Party candidates running in the city in the 2019 local elections.

Mr Boyle said it is clear that the city is paying the price for the absence of a “green voice” at council level in recent years.

“Decisions have made been made over the last four or five years that shows the lack of a green presence — the policy in relation to flood relief, the policy in relation to how we use open space, how to create green space,” he said.

“Cork City Council’s piecemeal approach to dealing with flooding is the wrong approach. We have already seen it run into quicksand, with the Morrison’s Island project.

It has to be a whole-river approach, which includes a downriver barrage and a massive tree planting programme upstream.

However, he said running on an anti-OPW flood defence plan platform alone would not be enough for the Greens to win council seats, with a “green voice” needed to provide “more imaginative responses” to other challenges, such as housing.

Mr Boyle, 56, from Turner’s Cross, will be standing in the south central ward. Oliver Moran, 40, from Montenotte who is standing in the north-east ward, will be joined on the ticket by Lorna Bogue, 26, from Mahon, in the south-east ward, Mark Cronin, 47, from Dublin Hill, in the north-west ward, and Colette Finn, 59, from Glasheen, in the south-west ward.

Mr Moran and Ms Bogue stood in the 2016 general election. Mr Cronin and Ms Finn are standing for election for the first time.

Among their key policy goals are bringing forward progressive plans for the city’s flood defences, increasing community green spaces, the reintroduction of a light railway or bus rapid transit system, and improvement of cycling infrastructure.

Mr Moran said electing Green Party candidates would tip the balance of power on key council votes on major issues such as flood defences and the full-time pedestrianisation of the Marina. He also called on the Government to provide urgent clarity on its proposed plebiscite in Cork on its plans for a directly elected mayor.