Government has ‘given up’ on emissions targets, says O’Gorman

By Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association

Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has accused the Government of “giving up” over emissions targets.

O’Gorman said the Government was failing to give leadership over environmental issues and added that his party was targeting two upcoming by-elections.

The Green Party was part of a coalition government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael from 2020 to 2024.

But the party lost 11 of its 12 seats at the last general election, leaving O’Gorman as its only remaining TD.

At the party’s conference in Kilkenny on Saturday, he said the “Green tide is rising again” following the recent by-election win for Hannah Spencer in Gorton and Denton in a Westminster by-election.

O’Gorman told RTÉ's This Week programme that the party had improved its internal workings ahead of by-elections later this year in Galway West and Dublin Central.

He said: “I think these by-elections, the biggest impact that they could have is to elect a green TD, because that would completely change the political conversation here, about nature, about climate, two areas we know, and I think everybody recognises that since the Greens have left government, that this government have backpedalled on consistently over the last 12 months.”

O’Gorman said he had reflected on his time in the coalition government, where he was children’s minister.

They're not prepared to face the realities of very significant fines coming to Ireland if we don't meet our targets

He said: “I wish I pushed earlier in terms of reducing childcare costs, and I wish in terms of the migrant crisis and the accommodation crisis that I had to deal with in my department, I wish I’d been tougher with some of the other government departments, particularly the Department of Housing.”

The Green Party leader said Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris were “not prepared to give leadership” over the climate.

He said: “They’re not prepared to face the realities of very significant fines coming to Ireland if we don’t meet our targets.

“And they’re using that to distract from the fact that on important policies like investment in public transport, like decarbonising our electricity system, they are not pushing forward.

“They have no interest in these areas.

I don't know any other government target that it is satisfactory for a minister to give up four years before that target is due

“We saw the difference the Green Party made in the last government.

“We brought these areas to the very centre of political decision-making in this country, and we’ve seen retreat after retreat from the new government.”

O’Gorman said the Government had already “given up” on meeting 2030 emissions reduction targets.

He said: “I don’t know any other government target that it is satisfactory for a minister to give up four years before that target is due.

“It wouldn’t be acceptable in housing, it wouldn’t be acceptable in terms of health, in terms of waiting times, and yet this Government has given up four years early, and that’s to let themselves off the hook.”