Eamon Ryan has said he will be leading the Green Party into the next general election and that his party was “never more needed”.
Speaking at the party’s think-in in Co Waterford on Friday, Mr Ryan said his target for the local elections was “madly ambitious” at 100 seats, more than double their current tally, and was aiming for 10 per cent of support at the next general election.
Mr Ryan, who is the Minister for Transport, Environment, Climate and Communications, also said that energy companies will have to “drop their prices further”.
The minister said his department will receive an increase in revenue to provide for retrofitting in the coming Budget and the Department of Finance had agreed to that in advance, as part of the allocation of the carbon tax.
The Green Party leader said the local and European elections next June would be the “first test” for the party and that what it had been warning about for 40 years regarding climate change was “now unfolding before us”.
“I’m confident that if we get the message to say keep going green, because this is the future, I think people will vote for it,” he said.
Mr Ryan added that if he were to focus on the party’s poll ratings, “you would be chasing your shadow the whole time” and believed the “vast majority of people back a green future”.
The minister said when then the EU nature restoration law was at risk, with Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin MEPs “speaking against it in European Parliament – actually you started to hear the silent majority, that actually do want to see nature restored, do want to see us protecting the future of our children”.
“That’s why at the last minute, the other parties changed and came in behind our position,” he said.
The Dublin Bay South TD said he and the Taoiseach had met the four main energy companies earlier in the week.
“They all said the same thing; that yes we’ve to bring down prices and we’ll work with them on that, but actually our security is going to be delivered by going renewable and going with efficiency,” he said.
Mr Ryan said he would bring to Government in the coming weeks a policy paper on what was needed to be done on gas security.
The minister said the energy market was “a competitive market” and those who had dropped their prices were “winning the customer”. He said the Government also had a responsibility in relation to energy prices but “it helps when the companies are forced to compete with each other”.
The Green Party leader said the priority for the Budget in October was to ensure it was “progressive” and “protects those on lowest incomes most”.
Mr Ryan said while he had not yet read An Bord Pleanála’s decision to refuse permission for the construction of a Liquified and Natural Gas (LNG) terminal and energy park on the Shannon estuary near Ballylongford, Co Kerry, “the future is not in investing in fossil fuels”.
“At a time when the world is burning, we cannot expand our use of gas, we have to contract it. But we can switch to electricity from wind and we can switch to hydrogen made from that wind,” he said.
The think-in, which is taking place over two days in Tramore, Co Waterford in advance of the Dáil returning next week, is focusing on political strategy, upcoming elections and the political year.
