Minister Eamon Ryan has accused a Fine Gael MEP candidate of seeing “political advantage” in taking aim at climate change policies.
The Green Party leader criticised his coalition partner’s candidate in the Dublin constituency after comments made in recent days on climate action and transport.
Regina Doherty, a former minister and ex-Meath TD for Fine Gael, told The Mail On Sunday that if elected she would be a “watchdog in Europe to mark the Greens” and accused the party of dividing Dublin city “like East and West Berlin”.
On RTÉ’s Prime Time debate on Tuesday night, Ms Doherty accused the Green Party of an “autocratic style” and claimed that some new cycle lanes in Dublin were “actually dangerous”, while the Green Party’s MEP candidate in Dublin Ciarán Cuffe accused her of rhetoric “going back 30 years, it’s living in the past”.
Asked about the comments on Wednesday, Mr Ryan defended his party’s track record on climate, and said that he has repeatedly emphasised over the years that climate change should not be about “wagging the finger”.
The Environment and Transport Minister also said that he was hopeful the level of support for the party “might surprise people” on Friday, and said some election candidates were more “nihilist” than “far-right”.
“There is no arrogance in the approach that we’re taking to climate,” he said, as he accused Ms Doherty of seeing “political advantage in attacking us”.
“I think the reason for that is I’m out canvassing all the doors right around the country, you do go to a lot of doors where people to see change happening and it’s difficult.
“Put in a bus lane, put in a cycle lane, it’s contentious… And I think what Regina is doing is picking that up on the doors and saying ‘I’ll use that for my political advantage’. I don’t think it is to the advantage of the Irish people because we do need to change.
“It is change for the better, just as you’re changing, it’s hard to convince people of that.
“If you don’t change, well then buses just get stuck in traffic, cyclists are never safe, we don’t turn Dublin into what should be like.”
He added: “I differ fundamentally with Regina Doherty on the vision of the city, I don’t believe Dublin is going to work for Dubliners if it’s clogged with traffic, if it’s not safe to cycle and to walk, if we don’t have a functioning public transport system.”
Asked if he agreed with Mr Cuffe who accused Fine Gael of threatening to ‘unleash climate chaos’, Mr Ryan said: “I think Ciaran’s right, they’re seeing this as in some quarters unpopular and they decide ‘Ok, we’ll represent people who are unhappy with that’.”
Asked how to handle attacks on climate policy issues from his coalition partners in Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, Mr Ryan said: “With modesty, with humility but with persistence. Listening, but also making your case not in an arrogant way, but in a logical way.
“You agree to differ on occasions, but you sit down and come to a resolution, and you do it with modesty, for starters.”
He said that he hoped people would come out and “vote for climate action” on Friday, June 7th, but acknowledged that there had been a Green ebb after an electoral surge in support in 2019.
The Green party won 5.5 per cent of first preference votes in the local elections in 2019, and had two MEPs elected after garnering 11.4 per cent of first preference votes in the European Parliament elections.
They are now on around 4 per cent support.
“I think this is a time for political parties, particularly if you’re interested in climate, not to sit on the fence, not to avoid responsibility. I think it’s time to take it on in government – whether that’s local government, national government or in Europe. It’s action stations on climate.”
“I sometimes find the ‘far right’ tag a bit strange because right, you presume conservative, you presume certain values,” he said.
“But actually I think what a lot of the opposition on climate, be it on migration, be it on vaccines, be it on the very concept of a strong state or a trusted state, that’s not right or left, that’s just nihilist.
“I think that’s the choice unfortunately we’re facing because, in a fearful time in the world, the vote for such a position is strong and it could hold the balance of power.
“The alternative will be a Green balance of power.”
Mr Ryan added: “It’s true that 2019 was a high watermark in environmental thinking, not just across Europe but across the world and we benefited from that in Europe and in Ireland in having a historically successful day electorally.
“It’s true that that concern about the environment has somewhat faded for a variety of reasons: Covid, firstly, dominated everything for two years.
“The war in Ukraine or the cost-of-living crisis was central, understandably, to people’s minds.
“How can I worry about getting to the end of the world when I worry about getting to the end of the week?
“But actually the underlying concern and public understanding of the need to protect our environment continues to rise.
“The ‘short-term thinking’ tides comes in and tides come out but the overall level of consciousness around the risks to our environment and therefore to ourselves is there as strong as ever.
“We will see on Friday.
“I think we might surprise people, I think we might actually do well.”
He added that it was still “hard to judge” at this stage as people were still making up their minds.
“I’m not without hope that we could do well on Friday.”
