Green Party's broken promise

On 5 May, John Gormley TD released a press statement about the Progressive Democrats threatening to pull out of government. Asking the question, "If the PDs pull the plug, who exactly can they go into Government with?" he then answers the question with "the Green Party won't touch those opportunists with a barge pole". This I presumed at the time meant that his party would not go into government with the PDs. 

Now John Gormley has been named as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, lining up with Mary Harney as Minister for Health and Children. Here we can see that his first campaign promise has been broken and the media stunt of his showdown with Michael McDowell was just that. Repeatedly during his attack on McDowell he held up a PD leaflet calling it lies. He may know because what he said above seems not to have been the truth.

The Greens have gotten away with many fanciful proposals over the years because there seemed no chance for them to be in power. Now, even before they are faced with the realities of governing, they have conceded it's not plausible to bring about any change on the biggest of their issues.

It would seem that the integrity of what Mr. Gormley has to say has been severely tested by this whole thing. If you can't even trust the word of a member of the Green Party, then whose can you trust? The only thing green in this country is the electorates for letting these types of people get into power.

It has to be said that it is rare for a Green Party to be in government; however, the Irish Greens are weak and will quickly succumb to the Fianna Fáil machine with the whole thing going down in history as just a small gesture from the Taoiseach towards the left.