PoliticsAnalysis

New Greens leader Roderic O’Gorman represents continuity with minimal change

O’Gorman says all Green Ministers will remain in their current posts after securing a narrow win over Senator Pippa Hackett in the leadership race

Minister for Children and Integration Roderic O’Gorman has been elected as the new leader of the Green Party. Video: Enda O'Dowd
Pat Leahy's picture
Pat Leahy
Mon Jul 08 2024 - 14:10

Roderic O’Gorman had been the favourite to win the Green leadership, and that tag was justified today when he was announced as the successor to Eamon Ryan at an event in Bewley’s cafe on Grafton Street in Dublin.

But it was a close-run thing – just 72 votes separated O’Gorman from his rival Pippa Hackett – with the Minister for Integration winning by 984 votes to 912. The margin is certainly tight, though not quite as tight as Ryan’s over Catherine Martin (just 48 votes) when she challenged him for the leadership in 2020.

Significantly, though the numbers were not dissimilar – about 1,900 people voted on both occasions, suggesting the Greens’ activist base has not collapsed. The results of the local and European election suggest the Greens will probably lose seats at the next general election – but also that they will probably not lose them all.

O’Gorman made very clear immediately after the result was announced that he represents continuity, not change: there will be no reshuffle of Green Ministers, senior or junior, he said, meaning Ryan and Martin will remain in their Cabinet jobs (as will Hackett and the other Green junior ministers, Joe O’Brien, Malcolm Noonan and Ossian Smyth).

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O’Gorman will now attend the meetings of the Coalition party leaders every week, but that is the sum total of the change in the Government arrangements. It’s the minimum change for the Government, though O’Gorman’s relationship with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael has been scratchier than Ryan’s was.

While both candidates were very much part of the Ryan wing of the party, the election has exposed some differences. Hackett’s strong performance suggests the party’s rural environmentalist element is almost as strong as its urban progressive wing. That could make things tricky if the time comes to choose between different priorities.

The inescapable fact remains, though, that electorally the Greens are more an urban than a rural party, and they are likely to remain so. Hackett, after all, does not have a Dáil seat, and her chances of winning one have not been improved by the division of the Laois-Offaly constituency into two three-seaters.

Green candidates tend to do better in larger constituencies. O’Gorman has a decent chance of retaining his seat, but like all Green TDs, he will have a fight on his hands.

[ Roderic O’Gorman elected new leader of the Green Party ]

O’Gorman gave a few signals about the future direction of his leadership. He stressed he wanted to see “investment in public services” rather than giveaways as the priority in the budget (first indications available in tomorrow’s Summer Economic Statement). He said he wanted to see the Government go its full term but didn’t set down any hard dates.

The new leader also said he looked forward to discussing the RTÉ funding issue with his Government partners but didn’t set down any red lines. O’Gorman said he wanted to see hate crime legislation enacted, but when pressed on the controversial hate speech elements of the legislation, he acknowledged there would be amendments.

There was nothing, however, that will sound different from what the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were hearing from his predecessor.