Former Greens call on the Green Party to withdraw from Government

national | politics / elections | feature

Tuesday June 02, 2009 12:13

by Patricia McKenna

pmmckenna at eircom dot net

Calling for The Greens
to Leave Government

Independent Euro candidate and former MEP Patricia McKenna is calling for the Green Party to withdraw from Government. Her call is being backed by former Green Party Councillors Chris O'Leary and Betty Doran.

They are appealing to the Green Party to do what is needed for Ireland by pulling out of government, thus causing a general election. If the Greens stand behind what Fianna Fáil is currently trying to do, they will be participating in economic treason. If they allow NAMA - which has the taxpayers riding to the rescue of banks that were bankrupted with the help of Fianna Fáil leaders and their cronies - to be voted through, there will be no going back and the people of this nation will be footing the bill for generations to come. The Government has no mandate to go ahead with NAMA. The only democratic action would be to ask the people what options they prefer to take to help address the current crisis.

Independent Euro candidate and former MEP Patricia McKenna is calling for the Green Party to withdraw from Government. Her call is being backed by former Green Party Councillors Chris O'Leary and Betty Doran.

They believe that the further squandering of taxpayers' money into the Anglo Irish Bank is reckless. The money the government is putting into the Anglo Irish Bank is equal to the cuts made in the draconian 2009 special budget. Taxpayers should know that their sacrifice is going to be squandered.

The Green Party in the past had an impeccable record of exposing corruption and I am appealing to them to do the honourable thing and save this country from disaster. They were not responsible for bringing the country into this economic mess. However, if they stand behind what Fianna Fáil is currently trying to do, they will be participating in economic treason. It now appears that the only way to save the country is for the Green Party to pull out of the governing coalition regardless of the consequences to the party in the immediate future. I believe that they will reap the rewards in the end.

If the Greens stay in Government with Fianna Fáil and allow NAMA - which has the taxpayers riding to the rescue of banks that were bankrupted with the help of Fianna Fáil leaders and their cronies - to be voted through, there will be no going back and the people of this nation will be footing the bill for generations to come.

The Government has no mandate to go ahead with NAMA. The only democratic and accountable action would be to ask the people what options they prefer to take to help address our current crisis. There are many options being out forward: Fine Gael has proposed the concept of a 'Good Banks' scheme and this is worth examining as it seems less likely to saddle the public with bad debts and continual injections of public money provided by taxpayers.

Both Labour and Sinn Féin are advocating nationalization of banks. However this means that the public will have to take on all the bad debts of the banks. It is vital that all options are carefully examined before any government forges blindly ahead with so called solutions that may make the situation even worse.

Many Fianna Fáil voters did not vote Fianna Fáil back into office to bail out banks at their expense and burden their children with massive debts.

The Government is making a huge commitment with taxpayers' money, the legality of which has been already called into question. This commitment should not be taken without a general election. The NAMA proposal is being carried out behind closed doors. The agreement with the religious orders was carried out in the same way -without the involvement and behind the backs of those most relevant, the victims. This is exactly the same approach and the people most relevant in this situation, Ireland's taxpayers, are being kept out of the equation. We cannot allow any government to make this mistake again.

The Green Party's Niall Ó Brolcháin was quoted yesterday saying that if Fianna Fáil sustains huge loses there should be a general election. He is right, but there is a need to go a step further and say that the reason for a general election is much more imperative. It is not just about the electoral success or failure of any party, but- it's about the people, their children, their pensions, their future and their hard-earned cash.