Greens launch manifesto with €10bn transport plan

Several cities in Ireland are set to get new light railway systems as part of the Green Party’s plans to invest an additional €10bn to “supercharge” delivery of major public transport projects. The pledge came as the Green Party unveiled its manifesto for the general election today (November 12).

The plan 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.

The measures will specifically include BusConnects, Metro, DART+, Luas extensions in Dublin, BusConnects and light rail line from Mahon to Ballincollig in Cork, reopening the railway line from Wexford to Waterford and upgrading existing lines to Limerick and Kilkenny. New rail lines include the opening of a rail line to Shannon and creating a metropolitan electric rail service that extends to Ennis, Neenagh, Foynes, Limerick Junction and all stations in between. In Galway we will open a bus corridor from Knocknacarra to eastern industrial estates, explore light rail for the city and reopen the Western Rail Corridor. 

The party wants to improve and further expand public transport after cutting costs over the last four and half years, including a 20% cut in adults fares, 60% for young people and free fares for Under 9s.

The party will also outline its plans to a new “Climate Ticket” that will offer further savings to regular commuters as well as taking a number of measures to improve the reliability of bus services.

“Public transport has been the poor relation of transport provision for too long. Only the Green Party will place that relentless focus on ensuring those big projects will get over the line and make people’s lives easier,” Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman will tell the launch.

The party will also focus on continuing to roll out a new ‘Local Link’ bus route every week in rural Ireland and adding more late-night and 24/7 services in urban areas. Outside public transport, the party will outline its plans to roll out a State-led system of childcare that will guarantee an early years place for every child and put free solar panels on 200,000 low-income homes.

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, with a particular emphasis on supports for the most vulnerable.

On childcare, the party pledges to move towards a new public model of early years education. Central to this is a guarantee of access to early years education for every child, regardless of where they live.

Green Party Leader Roderic O’Gorman said;

“Over the next weeks, voters will hear politicians making a lot of promises. But words cost nothing, it’s action that counts. The Green Party doesn’t make empty promises, we deliver real change.

“In Government, we slashed carbon emissions, even while the economy continued to grow. We cut childcare costs in half and put families first. We made public transport so cheap, reliable and efficient that more than one million people take public transport every day. Politicians talk, but Greens deliver.”

Deputy Leader Senator Róisin Garvey said;

“The Green Party is focused on delivering for Ireland. We will double the area of agricultural land being farmed organically to 10% by 2030 and use the climate and nature fund to pay farmers for large scale nature restoration projects. The more we improve public transport, the more we reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. Reducing time stuck in traffic is better for everyone.

Living on my family farm at home, I cannot ignore the improvements I see to my neighbour's farms thanks to the Greens in Government. We are giving farmers money to plant trees, they're getting solar panels on their dairy farms and they're going organic. Local links are changing people's lives all around rural Ireland.

We are proud that the Green Party has more women than men running as candidates and we will push all parties to implement a 40% gender quota for candidates, cabinet appointments, and Oireachtas committee chairs.”

Director of Elections Senator Pauline O’Reilly said;

“The Green Party will continue to invest in renewable energy to cut energy costs and create warm, healthy homes. The Apple tax case is an enormous opportunity that should be used to invest in expanding public transport. We want to create a Climate Ticket, to make it easier to access and delivering genuine savings for regular public transport users. We will invest in train and bus infrastructure, ensuring they are accessible, clean, safe, well-maintained, and attractive centrepieces of our towns and cities.”

The entire manifesto can be found on www.greenparty.ie. Other notable manifesto pledges include:

Housing

• Target an average of 50-53,000 new homes per year, 15,000 of which are affordable (cost rental/affordable purchase) and 12,000 social. At least 4,000 will be renovated vacant/derelict units.
• A detailed plan for tackling vacancy, resting on three pillars – reducing administrative and regulatory barriers to renovation work, providing financial support from the State, and expanding taxation on vacant properties.
• A new Minister of State for the regional cities to ensure public capital investment goes to Waterford, Limerick, Cork and Galway.
• As an anti-homelessness measures, make the Help-to-Buy scheme available to hard-pressed renters seeking to purchase their home from their landlord, while also continuing the tenant-in-situ and cost rental tenant in situ schemes.
• Continue to create warmer, healthier homes through an equity release scheme for retrofitting so that older people can live in warmer homes without taking on debt and increasing the 80% attic and cavity wall insulation grant to 100%.

Welfare

• Continue to deliver progressive budgets by increasing social welfare in line with wage and price inflation, introducing a new anti-child-poverty payment, increasing home carer’s tax credit to €4,000 and making it available to unmarried cohabiting parents and introducing a new €50 weekly cost of disability payment.
• Extend maternity, paternity and parents leaves to provide 52 weeks leave in the first year of a child’s life and increase maternity, paternity and parent’s benefit by €40 per week.
• We will establish a new centralised Means Testing Agency designed to simplify the process for people seeking to access public services while at the same time allowing for better targeting of grants and social assistance payments and providing the data needed to inform better social policy making into the future. 

Nature 

• Develop a nature restoration plan under the nature restoration law and advocate for an EU Nature Restoration fund. 
• Use the climate and nature fund to support large scale nature restoration projects on public and private land and continue to create new national parks and nature reserves.
• Publish and enact the Marine Protected Areas Bill. 

Climate Action 

• Use the funding we secured in the Climate and nature fund in the following way: 
• €1.2 billion on the retrofit of public buildings. 
• €200 million on energy efficiency measures for businesses. 
• €250 million to support the development of district heating. 
• €300 million to support a new biomethane industry. 
• €200 million for a programme of research and innovation for clean technologies. 
• 100 million for new infrastructure required for offshore wind and microgeneration. 
• Invest half of the Apple money in public transport projects, a new climate ticket, supports for EVs and investment in cycling and walking infrastructure. 

Economy

• Help small businesses by introducing rates rebate and expanding and increasing the energy efficiency grant. We will extend illness benefit to the self-employed. 
• Use a portion of the €3 billion climate and nature fund to help businesses cut down on fossil fuel use, encouraging them to switch heat pumps and zero emissions gas. 
• Develop new industries on the back Ireland’s enormous offshore wind energy potential. 
• Establish an ‘IDA for skills’ to help people to find a job in Ireland, with a particular focus on public service positions, and support with re-location costs. 
• Convene a Citizen’s Assembly to examine in detail the introduction of a four day working week. 
• Work to reform the spending rule by moving some investments that deliver direct and measurable savings to the exchequer in the long-run outside of the spending rule. 
• Continue to save for the future of the country by sticking to our commitment to transfer excess corporation tax receipts into the new Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund.

Childcare

• Guaranteeing access to early years education for every child, regardless of where they live. We will give every child a legal right to early years education by placing access to two years of Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) on a statutory footing.
• Directing the state to provide early years education and care directly. 
• Ensuring that early years professionals are valued and recognised for their extraordinary work through a process to increase pay and improve working conditions. 
• We will introduce a single national fee structure for public and private providers, guaranteeing fees at low, accessible levels set by the state.
• We will build on the success of the National Childcare Scheme, ensuring that the State increases its financial assistance to parents – through both universal and income-assessed supports.

Through these combined measures, we will ensure that:

• Early years education and care will be provided free of charge to families on lower incomes.
• Beyond this, families will be charged no more than €200 per child, per month.
• This will be implemented through phased reductions, commensurate with increased year-on-year investment.

Farming

• Double the area of agricultural land being farmed organically to 10% by 2030, with a further target of 15% by 2035.
• End live animal exports to non-EU countries for fattening and slaughter and phase out export of unweaned calves to EU member states.     
• End fox hunting and ban hare coursing during the next term of Government. 

Safety

• Strive to end violence against women and girls through a multi-pronged approach focussing on education, domestic violence orders, refuge spaces and coercive control. 
• Modernise the justice system increasing the number of Gardaí to 15,000 and hiring more judges and court clerks. 
• Expedite published legislation to add a new ground of socio-economic status to our equality legislation. 

Arts, Culture and Sport 

• Expand the Basic Income for the Arts pilot programme. We will continue to increase Arts Council funding, now at record levels, including by establishing a new arts capital and equipment programme. We will support Local Authorities to provide more studios, practice spaces and workspaces for the creative community.
• Allow for longer opening hours and reform event licensing to revitalise the nighttime economy. We will provide financial incentives for live venues to support the development of new creative acts.

Immigration  

• Establish a new Asylum and Integration Agency for Ireland, responsible for asylum requests, material reception conditions, accommodation, and integration supports, working closely with other arms of the State.
• Support communities to welcome people seeking refuge through the rapid implementation of the Comprehensive Accommodation Strategy – reducing reliance on private providers and allowing for longer-term planning.

Foreign Affairs

• Immediately enact the Occupied Territories Bill and suspend dual use export licences to Israel. We will push for an immediate ceasefire and continue to work towards a lasting, peaceful two-state solution.
• Continue to support UNRWA. 
• Continue to provide non-lethal military aid for Ukraine, with a particular focus on demining and cyber defence. We stand ready to support physical reconstruction and institution building in all three warzones

Health

• Expand the GP visit card to include 8–10-year-olds. 
• Building on the basic income for artists trial, bring in a non-means-tested basic income for all carers in the first two years of government.
• As a priority, establish a digital system for prescriptions, as part of a wider e-health strategy.
• Introduce free bi-annual gynaecological appointments for women aged 16-40.
• Oversee the rollout of free HRT and ensuring that vaginal oestrogen is made available without prescription and continue expansion of free contraception scheme.
• Legislate for paid leave for pregnancy loss in all its forms for up to 20 days.
• Enhance access to abortion care throughout the country and remove the obligatory three-day waiting period before termination medication can be prescribed. 
• Establish a Disability Information and Support Centre in every Community Health Organisation as a one-stop-shop for people with disabilities and their families seeking to engage with public services.
• Review the Disability Act 2005, with a focus on the Assessment of Need process to streamline access to health and education supports.

Education

• Examine the possibility of creating a new university that teaches all classes online, similar to the UOC in Spain or the Open University in Britain. This 100% online university would grant degrees and allow people in Ireland and abroad to learn new skills from home while working. It would focus on the Irish language, Irish heritage, and the skills needed for the Irish economy.
• Provide financial support to higher education institutions to build student accommodation, including Technological Universities. We will implement legislation that grants legal protections and fair treatment to students living in digs, ensuring their safety and security.
• We will work to expand third level campus health services, including sexual health care, to better support students' needs.
• Increase apprenticeships, especially in careers needed for construction, the digital economy and the green economy

Other

• Lower the voting age to 16.
• Limit posters to specific areas within towns and villages, to cut down on waste.
• We will implement a 40% gender quota for candidate selection, cabinet appointments, and Oireachtas committee chairs.