Greens’ programme - A wonderful opportunity was wasted

LAST week President Barack Obama was given the Nobel Peace Prize more for what he might achieve than for what he has done.

Last Saturday the 650 or so Green Party members who attended their in-or-out conference in Dublin adopted the same crystal-ball principle and voted to stay in Government.

They did so because they were seduced by a party leadership determined to stay in power and a peerless siren call from a Fianna Fáil administration stuck on the lowest popularity ratings in their party’s history.

They gave Fianna Fáil a priceless get-out-of-jail card. Just how priceless can be seen from the fact that Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe’s plans to reintroduce third-level fees, which have been in preparation for some time, were set aside after just a few days’ negotiations. However, in a deeply cynical have-it-both-ways dodge, Green leader John Gormley yesterday said there was nothing to stop colleges raising registration fees.

Mr O’Keeffe’s plans were not the only ones deemed expendable. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan must now pay 500 new teachers and reverse education cuts.

He has insisted that we have gone about as far as we can go in regard to taxation but this morning he finds himself committed to abolishing the PSRI income ceiling, a move that will cost those earning over €52,000 about €220 million a year.

The price of the Greens’ support also included cutting tax relief on private pension contributions. There is no parallel suggestion that public workers might make contributions vaguely related to the benefits secured on retirement.

This will be especially divisive at a time when most private pension funds are in crisis. It would have been more to the point if long-delayed pension insurance schemes were part of the Greens’ proposals.

It would be interesting to know if Mr Lenihan was forced to accept these reversals “in the interests of the party” or if he accepted them because he can save the money elsewhere. He may, of course, have had to accept them as the lesser evil as NAMA will not get off the ground without the Greens’ support.

The document contained the usual dog-eared promises on universal broadband access and new metro lines. There was even a reference to creating 127,000 green jobs, whatever they may be.

However, and most importantly, the Greens did not make any suggestions about what – or who – might be cut to balance the books. There was no indication that they accepted that Government spending must be cut every year for the next several years. The absence of deadlines suggests the party does not realise the great urgency required in these critical days.

Even the concessions won on corporate funding are pointless as power brokers and power seekers have always, and will always, facilitate each other.

It may have been foolish to expect anything substantial but that it turned out to be another occasion when Fianna Fáil showed why they are so very good at holding onto and using power and another occasion when their junior partners settled for a fog of promise and conjecture is disappointing.

It is hard to see a point in the future when the Greens will have such power again and in time they will come to regard this weekend as a great opportunity wasted.

Probably on the day after the next election.