Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Green Party Members - Deputy Catherine Martin and I - will be voting against all four nominees not out of any disrespect to the individuals but on the sound reasoning that none of them is presenting to us a clear and credible government. I will give a personal reflection if I may regarding the circumstances as I see them. I will refer to my family roots at a time when we are all looking back. I knew all four of my grandparents very well. I saw one as from a Labour background and one as an Independent. The two others lived with us for ten years and I knew them very closely. One of those was as dyed-in-the-wool Fianna Fáil Sliabh Luachra as possible and one was a staunch Michael Collins west Cork Fine Gael supporter. They hated each other's politics but they got into bed together for 50-odd years and it seemed to work as a relationship despite their dramatic differences. In the recent days, I sense Fine Gael Members opposite, clutched together, the boys all in the bed with the sheets right up to themselves, pointing across and saying that the rest can have a civil partnership but we know it would not work or be a proper partnership. It would not be civil, given the circumstances we have in this Dáil.

We need a Government and it may be time, as the numbers work, for the civil war divide to come to an end. It may be possible to do that without opening a new divide, pretending that a left-right divide is the defining issue of our time. We know the right has to learn that business must show it has a soul and social responsibility. The left must know how wealth can be generated to pay for the social services we also need. I heard Deputy Varadkar the other day on the radio speaking a truth that my party learned as part of a Government. We must start on the basis of trust and certain civility. It takes time to achieve the changes we must make. It would not be right or in the interest of a party or the public to set up some sort of short-term arrangement that everybody knows will fail.

In thinking big for the long term and about taking time, I indicate that the progeny of the grandparents I mentioned turned out to be green. I say to those in the position to form a Government that we would like to see them take some leadership in this respect. There was a meeting in the audiovisual centre last night that set out the stark reality of the science that is facing us. These issues, including the protection of our living systems upon which we depend, trump everything. If a Government is not formed that is willing to show leadership and position Ireland to take its place in the nations of the world as a country accepting that responsibility, grabbing the opportunity to create a new economic model that is socially just, it is not worthy of anyone's support.

We have four or five weeks to see whether that is possible. We will not be voting for any Taoiseach today and it is likely we will go into opposition in a proposing mode. We suggest to those who have the opportunity to create a Government that they should not miss this historic opportunity or let the Irish people down. Let us have a civil coalition arrangement and let this Dáil work in the way the Ceann Comhairle suggested when he spoke earlier.

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