GREEN POLITICS:By the time the Greens arrived at the party, the cake was gone and all that remained was the thankless job of cleaning up. But are they up to the challenge?
EVEN IF they rejected the political creed that brought it about, the Green Party - just 18 months in Government after 25 years in the wilderness - must wonder where the boom has gone.
Today, the political credo is about cutbacks, rationalisation and retrenchment. In better economic times, people began to tune into the Greens' environmental message. Now, the junior coalition partner must ensure their ambitions are not smothered during these more straitened times.
Critics argue the Greens compromised core principles even before they got into power, in the Programme for Government they agreed with Fianna Fáil after the 2007 general election. Faced with Fianna Fáil's heavy-hitters in the programme negotiations, including the late Seamus Brennan, the Greens failed to impose a truly "green" stamp on the document that emerged.
Since then, the Green Party's gains appear paltry - eco-lightbulbs, tax breaks on electric-power bicycles and a levy on city centre parking spaces - and the opposition has been quick to pounce. But the tide is green. Regardless of people's objections, many of the Greens' toughest ideas are going to become mainstream politics within years.
Ireland depends on imports for 90 per cent of all fossil fuels used to power electricity, transport and all energy needs. "This means €6 billion will leave the Irish economy this year. This is €1,500 for every man, woman and child in Ireland. The EU average is €700 . . . This does not bode well for our future," says Eamon Ryan.
In the background, a few significant tectonic plates have shifted - even if they are the sort of "big-picture stuff" that rarely makes headlines: the ESB's decision to spend €22 billion on renewable energy by 2020 and Eirgrid's €5 billion plans to upgrade its network to be able to transfer green power, for instance.
Given the realities of the world, the ESB would have absorbed the message of renewables in time, but the presence of the Green Party's Eamon Ryan in the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources has accelerated the transformation.
The Eirgrid decision is a classic example of how difficult it is to be loved in politics. Everyone favours renewable energy, particularly if it is generated offshore far from sight.
An Oireachtas committee is pushing its own legislation that would offer fast-track approvals to offshore wind farms, which would, says Fine Gael TD Sean Barrett, spur on €16 billion worth of investment.
However, power generated at sea must be brought inland and inland means high-tension power lines. Already, plans to build 140 kilometres of high-voltage power lines and pylons linking Meath, Cavan, Monaghan and Tyrone have been objected to by the North East Pylon Group.
So far, John Gormley has often appeared to be obsessed with his inability to stop the Poolbeg incinerator in his own Dublin South East Constituency, a project he campaigned against strongly before he took over as Minister for the Environment and Local Government.
"He just can't let it go. He has tried everything to stop it, and he can't," said one source who meets with him regularly.
While he was mocked over his changes to lightbulb regulations, Gormley has had much greater success with tightening up the planning rules that spawned the construction of half a million often poorly placed, poorly designed, poorly constructed homes - all of which contribute negatively to Ireland's carbon dioxide figures in unnecessary transport and heating costs.
Equally, Eamon Ryan has done much to legislate for better insulation standards and to fund a relatively small-scale programme to repair the mistakes of the past, due to begin in January.
The tragedy for the Green Party ministers is they have partially closed the stable-door on a litany of Irish building sins, but only after the Irish construction boom has bolted. Nevertheless, a national insulation programme to retro-fit tens of thousands of houses and employ thousands of construction workers may start small, but it will have to expand in time, spurred on by the need to cut housing fuel bills, if nothing else.
However, the installation of renewable energy systems, such as geo-thermal, solar, etc, is being hampered by the lack of trained workers to fit them. The State's training agency, Fás, has failed miserably to produce skilled staff, despite numerous declarations to Oireachtas committees that it was thinking about doing so.
The model could well be found in the United States, where the International Machinists' Union trains workers to be both plumbers and electricians: "The job needs generalists. People who can do both," the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg, told Innovation.
The decision to offer tax breaks to firms to install energy-efficient equipment in factories and offices has been well-received by business and offers the prospect of significant cuts in energy consumption in coming years. The credit crisis may deter many from making such investment for now, but the creation of the tax break has done much to eased tensions.
The peaceful waters will not last long once the implications of the Kyoto treaty and its successor agreement are clearly understood: international fines measured in the hundreds of millions of euro. A carbon tax is the first item on the agenda. The Commission on Taxation, headed by former Revenue chief Frank Daly, is expected to recommend the tax when it reports later this year. Fianna Fáil has put off its introduction twice already but they are unlikely to do so again, if only because it is now a revenue-raising opportunity.
Carbon taxes are supposed to be hypothecated: in other words kept safe from the predations of others in a ring-fenced fund and used to pay for extra public transport, or other such worthy objective.
However, Fianna Fáil will not go that far, according to many of those closely watching the relationship between the two parties.
The Greens will have to box clever during 2009 to make any gains - and to be given credit for anything that they achieve.
