John Gormley

The new year got off to a difficult start for Fine Gael. The comments of John Deasy and Damien English regarding the leadership of Enda Kenny may have been misinterpreted initially, but both of them, it has to be said, broke the golden rule of politics: never answer a hypothetical question. What on earth could their motivation have been? Perhaps, they believe that FG won’t be back in government and they’re positioning themselves for the aftermath.

I must admit I have a great deal of sympathy for Enda Kenny. Enda’s a good guy. When he was a backbencher he used to sit behind Trevor and myself, and there was always plenty of banter and jokes. You don’t often see that aspect of his personality nowadays, although given what has happened he probably needs his sense of humour more than ever.

It’s a pity too that Trevor’s comments in relation to Enda’s Irish Times interview were perceived as a total rebuff. I know Trevor likes and respects Enda. Trevor was simply reiterating the party position of campaigning as an independent party.

It’s actually a healthy development that FG would prefer the Greens to the PDs.

The next few weeks will be busy ones for the party. We have a number of policy launches planned and after that the party convention. Things are going well and the response from the public is positive and encouraging.

The smell was bad again this morning. I have not checked yet to see if Dublin City Council have it registered officially. I doubt it somehow.

The new website, floodmap.ie, launched by Tom Parlon looks interesting. On Morning Ireland he said people should not have built on the floodplains in the past 15 years. It’s a bit late for that now. He should have a chat with his Fianna Fáil partners and their developer patrons about that matter.

I had a meeting with Eamon Ryan and Ciarán Cuffe about our housing policy. We’re planning a launch soon.

Last Tuesday afternoon, the 10th of October, I took a trip down to the South Walk, past the Ringsend wastewater treatment plant. The smell was stomach churning. Luckily for Dublin City Council, there was a strong wind which dissipated the worst effects.

DCC still claim that they have solved the problem. This is untrue. Not only that, but their record of smells is completely inaccurate, as our comparison has revealed. How no-one has been sacked for this fiasco is beyond me.

Well done to all who organised the Blogging the Election conference on Saturday. I was unable to attend because of a couple of other commitments. I did manage to catch the proceedings on the web and in this morning’s Irish Times (subscription required) – and it looked interesting. The fact that I could not attend highlights the real difficulty for politicians when it comes to blogging - time poverty. It just isn’t easy to grab a few moments in the day to compose your thoughts. Another problem is that much of what is really interesting in Leinster House ie the gossip, the rumours etc are simply unprintable. A TD could write a very entertaining blog if were done anonymously.

Ciarán Cuffe did a good piece in the Times on Saturday, but he probably overstates the effectiveness of blogging as a communications tool. Browsing the web is still a relatively exclusive pursuit. In my experience, many voters still use the Internet for e-mail and that’s about it. All of that may change, especially as if broadband speeds increase and there’s more broadband penetration. The less high-tech approach of knocking on doors, looking the voter in the eye, communicating your message, is still the most effective.

It looks like the PDs and FF will patch things up. Michael Mc, I’m afraid, has cried wolf too many times now. He’ll probably try to salvage a shred of credibility by getting some form of new ethics legislation passed. You can see my thoughts on this in the press release I did this morning.

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We managed to get in a substantial submission on the EIS for the Poolbeg incinerator today - ‘we’ because a lot of credit has to go to my assistant, Ryan Meade, who spent a considerable amount of time and energy on it. You can read it below.

It’s been a busy day between the submission and continuing fallout from the Bertie issue. Trevor’s going on Questions and Answers this evening and Eamon Ryan and I had a briefing session with him this afternoon to prepare him. Bertie could survive tomorrow but, realistically, for how long? I remember when Ray Burke came before the Dáil and gave a ‘full account’ of his activities. Afterwards he claimed a line had been drawn in the sand, and Mary Harney even expressed her full confidence in him. Well, we know what happened there. Bertie has been damaged undoubtedly, but the real losers are the PDs. Far from keeping an eye on the lads, they have become indistinguishable from them.

I hope that at the very least there will be renewed focus now on the way politics is funded in this country. Parties are still under an obligation to big business and wealthy individuals who sponsor parties and candidates. ‘No favours sought or given’ has become a meaningless cliché. The Green Party proposes putting stricter limits on donations, banning corporate donations, limiting spending between and at elections, having a register of lobbyists.

The Minister for Justice , Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell has personally intervened in the Dartmouth Square legal dispute in his Constituency in a manner that is prejudicial to the progress of current legal proceedings namely a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) and consequent valuation arbitration.

The Minister has circulated a letter on 6th. Sept 2006 to the residents of the area with regard to the Dartmouth Square CPO case. In referring to the current CPO proceedings by Dublin City Council against Noel O Gara who acquired the Square from the Darley Estate, the Minister has made an unprecedented personal judgement on the financial value of the Square in saying that :

“No matter what view you take of the value of the land in conformity with the Planning Acts ,it is clear to me that it must at least have the value of say, a commercially run tennis club . While I am reluctant to put a commercial price on such a use of the land, it can hardly be less than one hundred million euro and could well be multiples of that. I note than Mr O Gara is claiming a value of 175 million euro (which I think is absurd”) ”

The Minister has in effect behaved like an estate agent talking up the value of the land . The effect of the Ministers intervention means that Mr. O Gara could now demand a higher land value for the Square beyond that of Green space / passive open / amenity space in any arbitration after a CPO confirmation , or in negotiations with Dublin City Council.

While the intent of the Ministers letter was to criticise Dublin City Council and presumably score brownie points for his own great wisdom, the unintended effect of his intervention has been to assist Mr. O Gara in obtaining a higher value for the purchase of the Square.

Like Mr Bumble, (the self important parish official in Oliver Twist) The Minister for Justice , Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell likes to think that he knows more about everything than anyone else.

Minister McDowell’s ill-judged intervention has done real harm to the public interest and played directly into the hands of Mr O’Gara.

The public would like more public spaces protected and more land acquired for public space. But this of course is not in keeping with the FF/PD agenda of giving developers and speculators as much latitude as possible

Well, Mary Harney certainly rained on the Green Party parade yesterday - we had unprecedented numbers of journalists at our ‘think in’ in Wicklow until Mary made her shock announcement. I wish her well. I’ve always had time for her despite our political differences.
Speaking yesterday evening to my Green colleagues it became clear that most of them wanted Michael McDowell to be the next leader. They feel he’s just the type of divisive and extreme figure that could bring this Government down. We shall see.

It’s been a busy week. Monday was Dartmouth Square, Tuesday the same issue, then down to the Galway Greens AGM. Wednesday and Thursday down in Brook lodge for our ‘think in’.

I haven’t written my blog for quite some time. In that time I have been at the UN conference on AIDS. Bertie has been criticised – unfairly in my view -for speaking at this conference while all hell was breaking loose at home. His speech was well received , particularly by the African countries which have been devastated by AIDS.

Just a brief synopsis of the week so far. On Monday I spoke in Lios na nÓg in Ranelagh along with Cllr Oisin Quinn, Jim O’Callaghan and Michael McDowell on the topic – Republic of Ireland –fact or fantasy. It was chaired by Mark Brennock of the Irish Times. It was a good lively debate, but there were only about 30 people in attendance.

Yesterday, Dublin South East Greens had a local meeting. Tonight I’m speaking about extraordinary renditions in the Dáil.

A few weeks ago I spoke at Sandymount Residents Association where I stated that Catherine Cavendish had opposed the promenade in Sandymount. I should have said that Catherine had opposed the lighting for the promenade. I’m happy to clarify this point and to apologise to Catherine for any misunderstanding.

I’m currently trying to get my parliamentary party to agree to proposals for private member’s time. We have to have everything done and dusted by Friday next.

I spent the first part of the morning filling out a visa form and having photos taken for the application. This is for the forthcoming UN conference on AIDS. We had leader’s questions this morning. We focussed on spiralling housing prices and the increased indebtedness of many young people as a result.

I had to leave directly following that to attend the Dublin/Monaghan bombings commemoration in Talbot St, which unfortunately I just got the end of. Only a small number had gathered in the rain. Patricia (McKenna) was also there.

The TDs had a long meeting with the party treasurer, Martin Nolan, to discuss election finances.

I managed to get the adjournment debate last night, on the Housing (miscellaneous provisions) bill.

I also received an interesting reply to a PQ regarding the use of the E112. It seems that public patients may well benefit from the ECJ ruling but that private patients may have to receive treatment in this country. It’s something I intend to pursue.

Tuesday mornings are always busy with Planning and Parliamentary Party meetings. This afternoon I had a priority question for Willie O’Dea regarding the Easter commemoration. According to Willie, the event cost the taxpayer 320,000 euro and was good value for money. He made it clear it would become an annual event, as I had expected. I had to leave when oral questions came up as I had an on-site meeting regarding Ringsend park.

It’s Europe day. We agreed at the PP to join the European Movement. We have always been a pro-European party, but that point is often lost when we criticise the direction in which the EU is heading.

Good news too from Tommy Simpson, who was elected to the committee of the European Greens on the weekend in Helsinki. This is the first time we have had someone on the committee. The German Greens had promised their votes and delivered. Great credit is due to their co-leader Reinhard Bütikofer, with whom I met in Berlin in January. I told Reinhard about our disappointment with the behaviour of some European Greens at the Dublin conference last year. It took place before the referendums in France and Holland. The results shocked a lot of European Greens and there has been a noticeable change of attitude since then. They’re listening to those Greens who have concerns. The French Greens are split down the middle and there’s a terrible legacy of bitterness following the referendum defeat.

Local Dublin South East Greens meeting tonight, followed by meeting of Sandymount residents.