ANALYSIS/The Green Party: The Green Party now sees the opportunity of becoming a substantial force on the opposition benches, writes Alison O'Connor, Political Reporter
The Greens are glowing with happiness following their extremely good performance in the general election which saw their representation in the Dáil rising from two to six deputies.
In the course of the three-week election campaign the party's candidates appeared to get a wind behind them which resulted in the gain of four seats. There may be some disappointment that there is no prospect of forming part of the next government, but the party is looking to the future.
According to Mr John Gormley, who was re-elected in Dublin South East, the electorate realised that the Greens had "got their act together and that they were a party you could vote for".
For years the Greens, with one TD and then with two, struggled on the margins of politics: earnest in their ideas but rarely looking as if they could ever turn them into reality.
Now, says the party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, they have the opportunity to organise themselves as a far more effective opposition party. "That would allow us to develop without the constraints of government." He had expected that just four Green candidates would be elected.
In the past three weeks Eamon Ryan's name kept being mentioned by other parties as a possible winner in Dublin South. On Saturday he took the fifth seat from Fine Gael's Alan Shatter.
"I'm in the party for 13 years. I think this success is particularly well timed," he said. "We have been very idealistic and probably weren't structured right. If we had won six seats five years ago I don't know if we would have been ready for it in terms of our own internal structures and level of experience. Now I think we are in good shape to form a good opposition party."
Mr Ryan was one of a crop of Green councillors produced in the 1990s who were so successful on Saturday. The others were Paul Gogarty in Dublin Mid West and Ciaran Cuffe in Dun Laoghaire. In Cork South Central, the party's finance spokesman, Dan Boyle, was finally successful, having contested three general elections, two by-elections and one European election.
"I really am thrilled," he told The Irish Times last night. His election was also important in giving the party a TD outside Dublin, and was described by Mr Sargent as "the sweetest of all".
Despite widespread expectation Ms Mary White, the deputy leader, failed to get elected in the Carlow-Kilkenny constituency.
Eamon Ryan, the party's transport spokesman, began canvassing a year-and-a-half ago and, he said, leafleted the entire constituency himself, involving about 30,000 homes. The lacklustre national general election campaign may have been dominated by economics; and the Greens' policies in this area may be considered a bit suspect by many, but in his constituency there was no mention of the subject in Dublin South. "It was local issues people were concerned about."
His canvassing experience was that old people felt "betrayed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael". Voters were annoyed by political corruption since, he said, in his constituency they were looking at the evidence of bad plannning decisions around them every day.
He concentrated on the Green Party plans for public transport; their proposals to make housing more affordable by abolishing stamp duty for those who are trading down and waste recycling.
The Green MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, played a low-profile role in the campaign but also declared herself "delighted" yesterday. Even if there had been a prospect of entering government, Fianna Fáil would have needed "major surgery" before being acceptable to the Greens, she said.
"People said the opposition was hammered in the election, but it wasn't. The real opposition were the Greens and Sinn Féin, and we saw that in the Nice Treaty. We need to build on our successes now and ensure that we increase from six after the next election.
"We will be playing a very important role in opposition. Michael McDowell campaigned against Fianna Fáil, and if the PDs end up in government with them now we will be on his back all the time."
The Greens' election campaign went very well and without any big blunders; however, the party deliberately stayed on safe ground by talking about the lack of childcare, the public transport crisis and environmental issues.
Throughout they emphasised competence: colleagues elsewhere in the European Union have performed well, they pointed out. They presented an image of a party that offered real difference but indicated they would be careful with it.
On Friday supporters of all parties and of none gave them a vote. Mr Sargent, elected in an electronic count on Friday night, was in the happy position of giving transfers to other candidates in Dublin North. "One of our strengths is being able to benefit from transfers," he explained.
Mr Sargent said it would have been nice to be in government, but it was a fact of life that they would be in opposition and they would make the best of it. As well as being personally disappointed at the failure of Mary White to get elected, on a practical level a seventh deputy would have given the Greens full party status and access to private member's time, as well as greater flexibility on the order of business.
One of the first things they would be watching out for, he said, was the government trying to rerun the Nice Treaty with only "cosmetic changes" .