Green Party compares itself to Paul Mescal while launching election manifesto
The party is now preparing to head into battle as their former coalition parties continue to snipe and criticise Roderic O’Gorman’s party.
The Green Party “needs a sequel in Government” as the party’s deputy leader compared it to Paul Mescal’s new film Gladiator II. The party is now preparing to head into battle as their former coalition parties continue to snipe and criticise Roderic O’Gorman’s party.
It launched its general election manifesto in Dublin on Tuesday as it continued to stress that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael cannot be allowed to return to the Government on their own. The manifesto was called “Towards 2030. A decade of change. Volume II”.
It was put to the Greens that “sequels are usually worse than the original”. However, Green Party deputy leader Roisin Garvey insisted that Green Party “needs a sequel”, as she pointed to one of Ireland’s greatest star's latest success in a soon-to-be-released sequel film.
“I think Paul Mescal is going to be a better sequel to Gladiator,” she said. “So maybe you might end up eating your words there. In fact, it's more important than ever that we have a sequel for the Green Party because the climate is [changing]. It's not that we want a sequel; We need a sequel.”
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The party said that it will use €7bn of the Apple tax money and €3bn from other sources to ensure that major transport projects such as Metrolink, Dart+, the Luas extension, and rail projects in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford start construction.
Other measures include a dedicated Asylum and Integration Agency. This will have statutory requirements to ensure all asylum requests are “processed humanely and fairly and expeditiously”.
The agency will also be responsible for the provision of accommodation and material reception conditions and for ensuring that those requesting international protection receive a “high standard of psychosocial and integration supports”.
The party will also commit to the Help to Buy Scheme, with Mr O’Gorman saying it will remain as “part of the Government’s affordability response”. It proposes targeting the scheme by “aligning it with the property price caps of the First Home Scheme”.
It would also seek to make the scheme available to renters seeking to purchase their home from their landlord, while also continuing the tenant-in-situ and cost-rental tenant schemes.
On childcare, the party pledges to move towards a new public model of early years education. This will include guaranteeing access to early years education for every child, regardless of where they live.
Other proposals include a tax on business class flights, which Mr O’Gorman said could bring in €105m. When asked if it was fair that taxpayers would end up footing the bill for the tax when members of the Cabinet are flying, he denied that he had ever taken a business class flight while a minister.
Mr O’Gorman said that the Government has “delivered change over the last few years”.
He said: “If you look at the record of this government, it's the Green Party that has been the active ingredient throughout. We've been the driver of change over the last four and a half years. We've delivered real benefits for families, delivered lower emissions, protected nature, delivered unprecedented investment in transport, delivered reductions in child care costs.
“We say to voters today, don't put that progress at risk with a Fianna Fáil or Fine Gel majority.”
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