Coalition government - Greens risk missing their opportunity

NEVER before was the number of Green Party deputies so appropriate to get into government.

If the party feels unable to align with Fianna Fáil now, it may not get a better opportunity.

This should force a concentration of minds within the Green Party. Some of the issues on which they have been most outspoken have nothing to do with the environment. They are not likely to be very effective if they take stands on a disparate variety of other issues as if they were members of a catchall party trying to compete on a par with Fianna Fáil or Fine Gael.

The sticking issues in the talks with Fianna Fáil extended to more than environmental matters.

Green Party leader Trevor Sergeant explained that the talks with Fianna Fáil had concluded without agreement because of insurmountable differences on what he called “big ticket items,” such as climate change, education, health and government reform.

Just what reforms the Greens were insisting on in such matters must remain a matter for speculation. The party can undoubtedly be a force for change on important environmental issues if they keep their message tight on environmental issues. For too long all of the other parties have taken our environment for granted.

What happened to the water supply in Galway in recent months has been a rude awakening. We always had bountiful resources of clean water, but now it should be obvious to all that it is necessary to work at ensuring clean water.

In the past it was easier for the other parties to arrange a coalition, but the Green Party was always going to have a difficulty securing the approval of two-thirds majority of the party’s membership. This undoubtedly posed a major stumbling block for the members of the parliamentary party.

Our particular form of representative democracy only rarely gives one party an overall majority.

When the numbers were right, parties that were at each other throats only days earlier could suddenly resolve their differences to form a coalition government.

Although Taoiseach Bertie Ahern expressed a preference for the stability of a coalition government, Fianna Fáil formed minority governments on no less than eight occasions. Half of those lasted a year or less, but the minority governments of 1961, 1965, and 1997 each lasted for over four years.

There were some unlikely partnerships, such as in 1948 when six parties and a number of independents formed the national coalition, or in 1989 when the Progressive Democrats went into government with Fianna Fáil under the leadership of Charles Haughey, or in 1992 when the Labour Party joined in a partnership government with Fianna Fáil.

Deputy Sergeant pointedly refused to rule out further talks with any party, including Fianna Fáil.

The manner in which he and his colleagues remained tight-lipped about the areas of agreement between the two parties would seem to suggest that the door may still be open for further negotiations if Bertie Ahern is unable to form a government next week. Only time will tell if we were just witnessing a political version of the game “call my bluff”.