De Búrca resigns from Greens, Seanad

Maebh

Deirdre De Búrca has gone and resigned from the Greens, her letter of resignation is great:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0212/deburcadstatement.html

"It would appear that holding onto office and to seats have become more important to the party than holding on to its fundamental political purpose. We have lost our way as a party and I am sad to say that it has reached a point where I, and most of the people I know, will be unable to vote Green in the next election."

What do people think? Personally, I think she's said a lot that needed saying...

Laminations

Deirdre de burca quits the greens saying that they are FF lapdogs

rte.ie/news/2010/0212/deburcab.html

Sleepy

Fair play to her. Shame her position wasn't of enough consequence to make the gesture worth a damn.

mike65

Death by a 1000 cuts, and its not like the party will be overwhelmed by fresh talent for the next elections.

Laminations

I think she has very valid reasons for leaving. This should be a biggier story than George Lee and should make the Greens really think about what they are still doing in government

Macha

Not unexpected. She didn't get the job she wanted with MGQ in Brussels.

What is it with stroppy politicians this week?

BennyBlanko

Laminations wrote: »

Deirdre de burca quits the greens saying that they are FF lapdogs

rte.ie/news/2010/0212/deburcab.html

There seems to be an air of honesty in Leinster House these days........first Lee telling it as it is @ FG and now DeBurca telling it as it is at the Greens.:)

Seth Brundle

One wonders whether she would have quit had she gotten the post in Maire Goeghan Quinn's cabinet as DDB had been reporting before Christmas (but as it turned out this wasn't the case).

Edit: beaten to point

johngalway

BennyBlanko wrote: »

There seems to be an air of honesty in Leinster House these days........first Lee telling it as it is @ FG

That's a stretch. He didn't have what it took to do the job. But that's off topic so I'll leave it at that.

johngalway

Seems they didn't get their shots before getting in bed with FF More loyal to FF Govt that some FF back benchers, love it

Laminations

Can we merge this into meabhs thread. Thanks

Red_Marauder

Can this possibly be a strop about the MGQ job? I have to say I do think she has more political integrity than others in the GP. It seems to be careless timing on her part if it isn't anything to do with the Quinn job, it doesn't look particularly good.

My initial reaction was of relief that this will take some of the media heat off Fine Gael for a while.

Expect to see George Lee handcuffing himself to a Shell To Sea Barricade trying to top this piece of attention deflection.

IrishTonyO

At last, one of the Green Party has done what the whole party should. They have sold their principles for power in government and have betrayed anyone who voted for them in the last election. At least they won't have this problem again as I doubt they will ever get enough votes again. No maybe Paul Gogarty and the like might start to realise they are on the deck of a sinking ship, which they have caused by a lack of backbone and principles.
Well done Deirdre and congratulations on your honesty.

Macha

Red_Marauder wrote: »

Can this possibly be a strop about the MGQ job? I have to say I do think she has more political integrity than others in the GP. It seems to be careless timing on her part if it isn't anything to do with the Quinn job, it doesn't look particularly good.

Why does a politician that quits suddenly have so much integrity? The assumption for this logic is that standing politicians have no integrity. Do you think de Burca would be resigining now if she had won a seat in 2007? Not a chance.

Red_Marauder wrote: »

My initial reaction was of relief that this will take some of the media heat off Fine Gael for a while.

I really don't think Lee's departure has damaged Fine Gael that much. It says more about Lee than anyone else. The complaints about Kenny as leader are louder now but they have always been there.

LostinBlanch

What's that Yank saying? A day late, and a dollar short.

Too little, too late.

If she really meant to show some integrity why didn't she come out and say this when they were pushing the vote to stay in government and support ramming NAMA through? But no, she didn't. There was very little dissent then when they pushed through the vote to support FF in defrauding future generations purely to support developers and FF cronies!

I would be very interested to know what exactly changed since then and now?

Mind you, she has nailed it on the head with the statement about hanging onto power at all costs. Still, at this stage it doesn't look like there's anyone left in the party who gives a flying fúck.

Oh and I see Gogarty is at it again, calling non Irish dregs.

What a wonderful person, a true representative of his party.

Red_Marauder

taconnol wrote: »

Why does a politician that quits suddenly have so much integrity? The assumption for this logic is that standing politicians have no integrity. Do you think de Burca would be resigining now if she had won a seat in 2007? Not a chance.

Why do you assume I'm talking about quitting? Isn't it likely that posters here are aware of her political history and basing our judgements on that?

I'm talking about her integrity in politics. Most people who are aware of her career (particularly at council level) will agree that she has personal integrity, party politics aside. She was the bane of some councillor's lives on Wicklow County Council with regard to rezoning and planning debates.

Macha

Red_Marauder wrote: »

Why do you assume I'm talking about quitting? Isn't it likely that posters here are aware of her political history and basing our judgements on that?

Perhaps but judging from the discussion here and on Politics.ie both of this and past resignations, as soon as a politician quits they are suddenly a beacon of honest and integrity.

de Burca has regularly been referred to as 'unelectable' among other choice adjectives - until now.

IrishTonyO

taconnol wrote: »

Perhaps but judging from the discussion here and on Politics.ie both of this and past resignations, as soon as a politician quits they are suddenly a beacon of honest and integrity.

Well they are 'a beacon of honesty and integrity' compared to the ones who are still clinging on to power by their fingernails, despite it costing them their soul.

Macha

IrishTonyO wrote: »

Well they are 'a beacon of honesty and integrity' compared to the ones who are still clinging on to power by their fingernails, despite it costing them their soul.

...and there's the assumption I was referring to earlier.

paddyland

I would have thought it very important that any government of any party, would have an element of genuine green agenda, if only to keep in check the more wasteful and thoughtless splurges of typical government policy.

John Gormley's sole contribution to Green politics in this country has been to assure the complete annihilation of the Green vote for at least a generation to come. I don't think any party leader has ever been so destructive of his own party, given that every other party leader is hell bent on preserving their party agendas.

There is only one contribution left for him to make now, and that is to pull down this wretched government. The Green Party at this point contributes nothing only complete failure. Half his own party recognise this.

IrishTonyO

taconnol wrote: »

...and there's the assumption I was referring to earlier.

Not really, only in the case of the Green Party since they entered government and sold their souls. They stand for nothing any more and have no moral or other highground to stand on, as a result of this.

Red_Marauder

taconnol wrote: »

de Burca has regularly been referred to as 'unelectable' among other choice adjectives - until now.

Well she doesn't make life easy for herself. She is the Lady Macbeth of the Green party, her ambition frequently overrides her common sense. She displays an arrogance to the voting public (in particular a certain disrespect for electoral boundaries) that although unintended, has always rendered her political future rather questionable.

But I don't think her political integrity can come into any serious question.

LostinBlanch

So the Greens rolled out Paul Gogarty on Pat Kenny. I wonder did he roll around on the floor while doing the interview?

Also Eamon Ryan is silent, why is this? they usually roll him out when they want someone to spin the party line no matter what the facts.

We'll see what happens now with Boyle after his I'm going to resignpanto charade.

Oh no you're not.

Oh yes I am

Oh no you're not.

Oh no I'm not.

Macha

Red_Marauder wrote: »

But I don't think her political integrity can come into any serious question.

Oh I'm not saying that she doesn't have political integrity (although, again, I could not see her resigning if she had been elected in 2007). I'm simply saying that a politician's resignations seems to be all that is required for them to have integrity, according to the public.

Look at George Lee - I think he was naive and disillusioned. His resignation shows no political integrity yet in radio polls, most people seem to think he's wonderful altogether and did the right thing.

paddyland

Maybe personal integrity is more important than political integrity.

IrishTonyO

The Green party has responded but this part interests me

“In recent months we have introduced civil partnerships legislation, a levy on carbon and a major programme of political reform, including a directly elected mayor for Dublin this year. Our policies have created tens of thousands of new, valuable jobs.”

What tens of thousands of jobs? Anyone know?

Macha

IrishTonyO wrote: »

“In recent months we have introduced civil partnerships legislation, a levy on carbon and a major programme of political reform, including a directly elected mayor for Dublin this year. Our policies have created tens of thousands of new, valuable jobs.”

What tens of thousands of jobs? Anyone know?

Yes. This discussion has happened already a few times on boards. Thousands of jobs and €millions of investment have been announced over the past year in the environmental goods and services sector in Ireland.

Red_Marauder

paddyland wrote: »

Maybe personal integrity is more important than political integrity.

In Deirdre de Búrca's case, what do you see as being the difference?

Biggins

Laminations wrote: »

Deirdre de burca quits the greens saying that they are FF lapdogs

Well a lot of folk think that too including myself.
Woof Woof Greens...

bmaxi

Biggins wrote: »

Well a lot of folk think that too including myself.
Woof Woof Greens...

You'd be hard pushed to find anyone who doesn't think that but I have to agree with other posters, it's pique rather than anything else that's behind these two resignations. Given her track record, does de Burca know where she belongs anyway?

Trotter

IrishTonyO wrote: »

..maybe Paul Gogarty and the like might start to realise they are on the deck of a sinking ship, which they have caused by a lack of backbone and principles.

Gogarty threw a hissy fit yesterday when none of the Fianna Fáil TDs turned up at the education committee meeting with principals of national schools trying to inform the committee about the challenges of multi ethnic education.

The irony is, its his own party's lack of any ethics and guts that has those FF TDs being that comfortable that they could ignore the meeting.

Fair play to Ms De Burca. Getting rid of this government will be impossible without people who call it as it is.