There is a “very real possibility” of right-wing Independents or small populist parties propping up the next government, Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has said.
He said it looked like Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil would be returned to government but would need “something extra” with the possibility of right-wing Independents or small populist parties propping up the two parties.
“In the same way as the Green Party provided a progressive direction over the last 4½ years, small parties, populist parties, could provide a very negative, a very regressive direction going forward,” he told reporters in Dublin on Wednesday.
“We could have the very real possibility of the likes of Mattie McGrath as environment minister in the next number of years, rolling back on the key changes that the Green Party implemented. We could have Peadar Tóibín as minister for health, rowing back on the reproductive rights that women have won over the last five years.”
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Mr O’Gorman urged voters not to allow the country “sleepwalk into a conservative government” ahead of the general election on Friday. He said that Independents do not provide stability, and described the 2016-2020 government as “highly unstable”.
“You had Independent ministers agreeing something in cabinet and then coming out and kicking those same decisions straight afterwards,” he said. “At a time when we may see economic turbulence, we may see the implications of the new government in the United States, that sort of instability is absolutely the wrong thing for Ireland right now. So progressive politics are on the ballot on Friday, and I’m asking the Irish people, do you want to wake up on December 1st with a conservative government in this country?”
Mr O’Gorman added that it was clear from briefings that had been coming from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael that “they want a coalition partner that represents the path of least resistance”.
Separately, the Minister for Integration also said the Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien and his department “could have done more” in respect of those granted international protection status.
“These are people who have gone through the international protection system, have been granted the right to stay in Ireland and now have the same rights as everybody else in terms of accessing housing and homelessness services,” he said.
“There’s about 6,000 people in the system right now who have status, and I don’t think this government properly addressed the needs of those people. If we had been able to provide a way of accommodating that group of people, that was 6,000 beds, we wouldn’t have had to open up in the IP system.”
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