Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I also want to make an appeal to Green Party members not to go into government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. If the Green Party allows itself to be used as a green mudguard for the pre-existing neoliberal and austerity policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, it will represent a substantial setback for the environmental movement. It will not be a step forward in any sense. It will not bring us any closer to the radical change we need to achieve a just transition to a net zero carbon economy. In fact, it will bring us substantially further away.

When people voted for change in the previous general election, they were not voting to take the neoliberal and austerity policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and place the word "eco" in front of them. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael will be very happy to have the assistance of the Green Party as a green mudguard and to place the blame on it for every austerity measure they introduce. They will say the measures are about the environment. In doing so, they and, unfortunately, the Green Party will contribute to damaging the image and cause of the environmental movement in the eyes of substantial sections of working-class people who will say this is a movement which means austerity for them.

I think it will be very clear in the programme for Government which we will presumably see in the coming days that Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil will not sign up for the change we actually need which is a programme to get us to net zero by 2030. It does not even look as if they will sign up to something like a binding 7% reduction year-on-year. Why is this? Enda Kenny gave the game away in Paris five or six years ago where he said it is not really a priority for us. He said that at the talks in Paris of all places. The current Taoiseach is more skilful so he now says we cannot be a laggard etc., but the truth is that Ireland remains a laggard.

Under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Ireland will continue to be a laggard because they represent the big polluters. They represent big agribusiness; they represent the biggest polluter in the State, Ryanair; and they represent the likes of CRH. They are not willing to stand up to those big businesses which are responsible for the majority of carbon emissions in our State because that is who they represent.

Right-wing political commentators have been full of very helpful, useful and neutral advice to the Green Party suggesting that the only responsible thing to do and the best thing for that party's political future is to go into government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They do so completely disregarding all the history of parties that portray themselves as progressive, left or whatever going into coalition with right-wing parties in this country. There is a lot of history of it to analyse. They ignore all that, including the history of the Green Party in government in similar circumstances in 2007 on the cusp of a major economic crisis. They ignore all of that to say, "This is what you should do." They do that to pile pressure on Green Party Deputies, Senators and above all members in order to maintain stability from the point of view of the political and economic establishment in this country.

The evidence from 2007 is clear. Obviously, the Greens were wiped out in the following general election because they signed up for the bank bailout, the troika deal and all those other measures. However, they also made regression in environmental measures. Deputy Eamon Ryan, as a Minister, stood over the continuation of the building of the offshore refinery in Rossport and the onshore pipeline at a time when protesters, including me, were being battered off the streets by gardaí serving the interests of Shell.

They will say it is urgent to make change etc. In reality it will set back the prospect of winning change immediately. It will set back the prospect of building the kind of movement we need. There is an alternative, which is to join with the eco-socialist left to build campaigns now which can win victories, and which can fight for free, green and frequent public transport. They can fight for a four-day week without loss of pay. They can fight for a programme of green jobs. They can fight for a sustainable model of agriculture, all as part of the Green New Deal with socialist policies. It can also allow us to place on the agenda breaking fundamentally with the political establishment as opposed to shoring it up, and to place on the agenda the need for a left government with socialist policies that can actually deliver the change we need to save our environment.

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