Green Party senator Pauline O’Reilly from Galway has offered public support for Galway-born Senator Pippa Hackett to become their party’s new leader after the surprise resignation of Eamon Ryan this week.
Ryan, who intends to remain as minister for Environment, announced his resignation on Tuesday, leading to immediate speculation as to who might succeed him.
Fellow Green Party cabinet minister Roderick O’Gorman is considered a leading candidate after deputy party leader Catherine Martin TD ruled herself out of the race on Wednesday.
Senator Pauline O’Reilly, formerly a Galway City councillor in Rahoon, told Virgin television on Wednesday morning that she would back Senator Hackett, who hails from outside Milltown in north County Galway, but grew up in nearby Ballindine, Co Mayo. The qualified equine scientist runs a mixed farm in Co Offally where she rears suckler cows, sheep, hens and horses.
“Pauline and Pippa are good friends working together up in Dublin, so I am not surprised [O’Reilly] has endorsed her,” said one senior Green Party member in Galway. All Green Party members will have a vote in the leadership election. “I’ll be voting for the candidate with the best policies, but I agree a leader with a west of Ireland, rural background and working in agriculture would do us no harm in terms of rebuilding our image in certain parts of the country,” he said.
The Green Party has never had a female leader, and all its former leaders – Trevor Sargent, John Gormley and Eamon Ryan – have represented Dublin city constituencies in the Dáil.
The last time a Galway Green Party member ran for leadership of the party was former mayor of Galway City, Niall Ó Brolcháin, who came second to Trevor Sargent back in 2001.
“There has been this narrative that the Greens in Ireland are anti-rural, whereas it’s the opposite in most countries, and we have to get back to that association with agriculture as part of the global green philosophy, at least in politcal terms,” he says. “Perhaps Eamon [Ryan] has been too much into the technocratic solutions for cities, and a return to nature-based policy is what the next Green leader needs to pursue.”
At time of going to press, Dún Laoghaire TD Ossian Smyth said he would also back Senator Hackett, and offered himself as deputy leader. The bookies were giving her a 14/1 chance on Wednesday afternoon, behind O'Gorman on just 4/1.
Article 5.7 of the Green Party’s constitution sets out that its leader shall be elected by the Modified Borda Count method – where candidates are ranked by points based on ballot preferences, unless only two candidates declare, in which case a simple majority vote will apply.
The Green Party's rule book also stipulates that its leader must defend their position in a leadership contest within six months of a general election. This means any new leader may have to face members again soon, with Fine Gael's taoiseach Simon Harris expected to go to the people this autumn.
