New Green leader Roderic O’Gorman vows to win votes ‘in every part of Ireland’

Roderic O’Gorman has pledged to win votes in all areas of Ireland as he took over as leader of the Green Party.

Mr O’Gorman said the party was proud of its achievements in the coalition government, with Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, but added they were also “very realistic about the challenges ahead”.

He said the party needed to better communicate its non-climate policies to ordinary people.

The Green Party leadership contest was triggered after its leader of 13 years Eamon Ryan announced he was standing down and would not be running in the next general election.

Mr Ryan made the announcement after the Green Party lost both its MEPs and half its council seats in the European and local elections.

Mr O’Gorman, the Minister for Children and Integration, and Minister of State Senator Pippa Hackett both put their names forward to succeed Mr Ryan.

At a press event in Bewley’s Cafe in Dublin city, it was announced that Mr O’Gorman had won 52% of the votes of 1,896 Green Party members who cast their votes between July 4-7.

He won 72 more than Ms Hackett.

“As leader, I want us to hold our seats, I want us to grow our seats,” he said.

“This is a challenge, but in the Green Party, we’ve never been afraid of the challenge.

“I want to win in every part of Ireland, because only by winning votes, by winning seats, do we have the capacity to implement those vital policies, we have to be out there fighting for every number one, fighting for every preference.

“I believe people vote for the Green Party because they know we can be counted on to get stuck in, to actually deliver. That’s what we’ve done. That’s what we’re continuing to do.” He said he was “deeply humbled and deeply grateful” and paid tribute to Mr Ryan and deputy leader Catherine Martin, who he said had “guided our party back from its lowest point in 2011”.

The voting for the deputy leader of the party has not yet taken place.