John Gormley

People in the Ringsend and Irishtown are shocked and saddened by the tragic death of Alan Young on the weekend. I was only speaking to his sister, Paula, on Friday morning. She and her entire family have my deepest sympathy at this very difficult time.

I got to the Newtownards count centre by train and bus yesterday. When I got there I congratulated Brian Wilson, but he wisely suggested that it might be premature to forecast victory. Well, today it happened. And he didn’t just sneak in for the sixth seat as had been predicted by the pundits. No, Brian got the fourth seat in North Down - an excellent performance.

Now comes the hard bit. There’ll be plenty of wheeling and dealing, plenty of juicy offers and he needs to be wary. It was a combination of his perceived independence, his environmental credentials, and his excellent track record that got him elected. If he plays his cards right he can build on that and Greens in Northern Ireland will go from strength to strength. A special word of thanks to Cadogan Enright. What an organiser. I don’t think I’ve seen a better postering campaign any place. Cadogan has big plans for the Greens in the North, and at this stage who can doubt him. They are now the sixth party in the province. What an achievement in such a short space of time. And what a platform for their colleagues in the south. I’m looking forward to Brian Wilson MLA campaigning down here in May.

I got a call yesterday morning from Dartmouth square residents about the latest activities of Mr O’Gara. He had set up a makeshift store to sell marble tiles. I cycled up to the square to investigate. One of Mr O’Gara’s colleagues was “pruning” a tree. When I enquired about this, Mr O’Gara said the branches were overhanging the path and that he was merely making it safe for pedestrians. A photographer appeared from the Irish Times. Residents had let me know that on this occasion they did not want to give Mr O’Gara the oxygen of publicity - so I decided to head home.

It’s clear that this is yet another try-on by Mr O’Gara. He’s hoping the arbitrator in the CPO process will give him a few bob for his “property”. How it ever got to this stage should be the subject of an investigation. He should never have been handed the keys to the park.

Today the talk was of the convention. There was the usual post mortem over coffee. Eamon, Ciarán and I felt we had succeeded in getting out the message that the Greens are ready for government. However, over the next few weeks we need to be more focused. Right now, it has to be about the environment. Anything else is a distraction.

I won five euros from Trevor over the weekend. I predicted we’d be up in the Red C poll. He had his doubts. He was more than happy to be proved wrong. Eamon Ryan’s reaction to our bet: ‘Five euros! You miserable, tight bastards.’

Talk quickly turned to the rugby. By the way, there was a comment in one of the newspapers that the Greens left the bar in Galway after 20 minutes of the match. Not so. We went downstairs to watch it in the restaurant. It was fantastic stuff. Shane Horgan is easily Ireland’s most consistent player. Girvan Dempsey – solid and dependable – is our most under-rated player.

I remember watching D’Arcy playing for Lansdowne against Blackrock when he was about 19. He played full back that day and it was clear he had extraordinary talent. He seemed to disappear for a while after that. Some said he didn’t have the dedication. Well, he certainly does now. He’s world class.

Everyone agrees that his has been the best Green Party convention yet. The delegates are in great form and it seems we won’t have enough space in the hall this evening for Trevor’s speech.

This morning’s session could not have gone better. The time keeping and organisation were impeccable. All credit to Stiofán Nutty and his team.

The response to my own speech has been very positive from the party members. I just hope we can maintain this momentum.

You can keep up to date on the Convention as it happens on the Green Party’s Convention Blog.

Fluoridation
The PDs voted down the motion to ban fluoridation. It’s difficult to understand how a liberal party, whose apparent philosophy is based on the notion that the individual has a right to make choices about his or her life, could countenance the idea of mass medication. It’s disappointing. Well done, anyway, to Councillor Paul Mitchell for putting the motion.

Auction politics
This election is in danger of becoming a runaway train. Each party is trying to outbid the other in a most irresponsible way. I remember the 1977 Fianna Fáil election manifesto, with its list of irresistible goodies for the electorate, which gained Jack Lynch a huge overall majority. I also remember the subsequent bleak years of the 1980s with its dole queues and immigration. I only hope that some voters will appreciate that auction politics is bad for the country.

It looks like water fluoridation has had its day. The PDs have a motion calling for a ban on water fluoridation at their party conference today. If this goes through then I have no doubt that Fiona O’Malley will support my report on the subject when it goes to the Health committee next month.

The most recent evidence shows clearly that fluoridated water should not be given to babies as it will cause fluorosis and God knows what else. The FSAI report on this was extremely flawed. I’ll come back to that another time. In the mean time here’s hoping that the PDs have the sense to vote in favour of a ban.

On Thursday I appeared on RTÉ’s Prime Time on the fluoridation issue. You can view the show here.

The last MRBI poll, which had us dropping to 4%, appeared on the day of our 25th anniversary celebration. In my speech that evening I joked that the result was a ’statistical blip’. That seemed to cheer up the party members. If I had the opportunity to address party members again I’d say exactly the same thing. These poll results are for the birds. Yes, we’re doing okay and getting a positive response, but we have not doubled our vote. Realistically, I’d say we’re around 6% nationally, and if we can maintain that sort of percentage we’ll make gains.

Our good poll results have irritated the PDs. Michael Mc had a go at us on Pat Kenny this morning. He claimed on three occasions that we wished to increase corporation tax. Not true, as it happens, but then facts aren’t Michael’s strong point. Later, he issued another attack, to which I responded.

We had some good launches lately. Our primary health care launch last week in Drogheda was successful. On Tuesday I went to Eamon Ryan with an idea for a launch today on climate change. I recommended a slogan “It’s time to act”. Eamon immediately organised a banner and a post card. We launched today on the Millennium bridge to coincide with the IPCC report.

This photograph was sent to me at the weekend. I am told that it was taken by “a 22-year-old cystic fibrosis patient after she was admitted to this toom in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin on Wednesday 17th last.”

I see from the front of today’s Guardian that Tony Blair is a spot of bother with environmental groups about his long haul flights. Tony likes to holiday in exotic locations at the homes of his friends, like Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees and that well known socialist, Silvio Berlusconi. Air travel contributes hugely to global warming – despite what Michael O’Leary tells you – and environmental NGOs believe politicians should lead by example. Tony doesn’t agree. He says science will somehow find a way to reduce carbon emissions caused by air travel. In the meantime, we should all continue to fly as usual. I’m not sure what Tony Blair has in mind, but zero emission or even low emission flying is a long way off. It’s an example of head in the sand politics.

At least, however, the issue is being debated in Britain. Here in Ireland, we don’t even examine how our politicians get to and from the Dáil. The overfull ‘temporary’ car park on Leinster Lawn reveals that the preferred mode of transport for most TDs is still the car. The idea that TDs would reduce their flying miles would be greeted with howls of laughter – by TDs. Free travel, after all, is one of the perks of the job. Personally, I wouldn’t care less if I never set foot in a plane again. Flying is now one of the most unpleasant and stressful experiences. The glorified cattle mart that is Dublin airport is a place I will visit only out of necessity .

At the moment I allow myself one long haul flight a year for political purposes. But even I have to admit that some conferences are avoidable and the work could be completed just as easily through phone conferencing.