Flying Under a False Flag

Why the Green Party Fails

Abstract

The Green Party are now over two years into their second stint in government and—unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with their first stint in government—it is not going well. The government is beset with multiple crises; the housing crisis worsens by the day, with new records for homelessness set on a regular basis; the health service continues to crumble, with record waiting lists, massive staff shortages, and the threat of further Covid-19 waves as we enter winter; there’s an intensifying cost-of-living crisis with spiralling inflation and seemingly continual energy price hikes; climate measures have proven inadequate and the government repeatedly fails to meet even these targets; and all this on the back of the continuing war in Ukraine, which has seen many in Irish politics and the media launch a fresh attack on Irish neutrality and attempts to deepen our involvement in EU military operations and cosy up to the US and its NATO allies. Only a few years after their best ever local and general election results, the Greens have plummeted in opinion polls, and all indications are that they are on course to repeat the electoral annihilation that marked the end of their last stint in government. How have the Green Party ended up in this situation, slavishly propping up the two traditional parties of government, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, while achieving nothing tangible for their troubles?