Education for Sustainable Development

The writing was on the wall for the Green party since June 5, 2009 when they lost 15 council seats in the local elections of that year. Now the party is gone from Dáil Éireann. Why?

Traditionally the Greens have been divided along two old fault lines within the party. This split is defined as either the "Realist" or "Fundamentalist" position and was originally expressed within the German Green party in the 1980s and 1990s. In truth it's a split between Left and Right. For the last five years the Realists have been driving the party.

Yet in their party political broadcast for election 2011 they described themselves as being neither Left or Right but Green. Unfortunately without any clear explanation as to what Green politics is, the Irish electorate was left none the wiser.

In my view the Irish Green Party has become a party of the Realist perspective, even centre right in its position. Voting for NAMA wasn't Green, it was centre-right. Even Dan Boyle, the parties number one realist, admitted as much when he said that support for NAMA was "difficult" for many green supporters as it ran contrary to the party's philosophical position.

If the Irish Green party wants to get back on the horse of politics then it urgently needs to examine its political direction. As a party I have always believed it should have aligned itself clearly with the left. Unfortunately the Realists within the party made the "easy decision" to support the centre right politics of Fianna Fail as opposed to building a clear and real political alternative on the left.