Commemorating the 1916 Rising
Barring some unexpected crisis, this time next year Irish people will go to the polls to select
their representatives to our national parliament. It will be the 30th time since that
revolutionary proclamation in 1916 that we will exercise, in a democratic way, the right of
every Irish person to be sovereign rather than subject in our own land.
Whatever your view of the means used by that provisional government, there is no doubt
that the issuing of the proclamation was a turning point that became a self-fulfilling
prophecy. It was a violent explosion which gave birth to our nation state. A strike for
freedom which was our Bastille moment, our Boston Tea Party.
For all the failings of our state, I am proud to be living in the democratic republic which has
since emerged.
It is right that we should mark the anniversary. How we do so is important.
I think we should be creative, and listen with respect to different voices who believe we
should have we gone about things in a different way. We should look for means of
commemoration which neither divide people, nor deny the truth of where we have come
from.
We in the political system should honour that history by entering this election campaign
without making false promises, and seeing to restore some of the lost faith in our
democracy.
We should honour it by finding ways to implement the vision Pearse had for an education
system which is more than a murder machine.
Honour it by starting a new, Green, industrial revolution which uses our natural resources in
a secure and environmental way.
Honour it by initiating a widespread revival of social and economic life in rural Ireland.
Honour it by reforming our banking system so that it works for the people, instead of
against them.
Political Reform
More than anything else, we should ensure that the commemoration process helps us to
consider how politics itself must change. We need to review the means we use, as well as
the ends we seek.
The revolution promised in 2011 never took place. One half of our political system seems to
be comfortable in holding a very conservative mindset. But I am uncomfortable when I hear
our Government acting as champions of an international trade deals that may circumvent
the social and environmental rights we hold so dear. I don’t think it is right for our Taoiseach
to be publicly kicking the representatives of the Greek people when they are down, as they
are at the moment.
They seem to believe that tinkering with the existing economic model, and bending
ourselves to meet the interests of international business, are a sufficient strategy for our
country. The credibility of that narrow approach vanished in 2008, when the system selfdestructed
on the back of excessive debt, bloated asset prices and increasing inequality,
right across the western world.
This model is eating into our social and natural capital and undermines our very future. It
must change, and it is up to the political system to point the way.
Unfortunately, the other half of the political divide are not providing a credible
alternative. The left seem stuck in a position that runs contrary to everything you would
think they might support. They are opposed to taxation, and raise distrust about anything
that the state sets out to do.
They have been joined in a reactionary coalition by the New Right, whose central message
seems to be that they will adhere to a whip on economic decisions and leave people free to
follow their own lead when it comes to issues of moral conscience. As if economic decisions
are not always framed by one’s value system. As if economics and morality inhabit two
different worlds.
We should take that path at our peril. It would leave us with what Yeats called the ‘leaders
of the crowd’ to guide our way:
They must to keep their certainty accuse
All that are different of a base intent;
Pull down established honour; hawk for news
Whatever their loose fantasy invent.
A Left Right Divide
It seems to suit both Fine Gael and Sinn Fein to set the election debate in a narrow divide
between so called left and right wing alternatives. It may suit them, but it does not suit
Ireland. We need the centre to hold, rather than turning to such out of date simplicities.
We need to be centred in a wider understanding of what is happening in our world. Centred
between an adherence to scientific principles in the establishment of good policy, and the
need for an artistic understanding of what we want to be.
We need a form of politics that engages in a constructive conversation instead of a
brawl. We give the yellow or red card to anyone who plays the man and not the ball.
A false left right divide ignores the reality that we rely on enterprise to innovate and deliver
employment and wealth, but that the state also has a vital part to play. We must regulate
markets and support innovation at the same time. We need a visionary political system
which can manage the health, education and other social services in a creative way, but also
make strategic investments in housing, transport, energy and food.
If you look at how the new economy is evolving around the world, it works best when
people follow a more collaborative economic model. We need co-operation between
government, industry and civil society in a new social enterprise model. For this to work we
need people to see the state not as the enemy, but as a force for the common good.
The republic, by its very definition, belongs to everyone. It is not a brand that can be used to
create division. It belongs to each and every voter, not to one any one political party.
Our own republicanism is expressed by a principle held since our formation; that all
decisions should be taken at the lowest effective level. That means engaging people as
much as possible about the day-to-day workings of the public service. It means supporting
community activism, and empowering local government, so that people have a better
understanding, and sense of ownership of what is happening in their state.
At the moment that sense of trust in the state is broken. In the provision of water, energy
and health services, people increasingly doubt the motives of officials and whose side the
state is on.
The decision this week by Labour and Fine Gael to proceed with a divide and conquer
strategy in the issuing of Irish Water bills is a consequence of the wider divisive political
strategy they have decided to take. It may suit their short term electoral interests to depict
those unwilling to pay as spongers, but it will only cement the divisions and distrust that
have already been created.
The problem with the development of critical infrastructure is acute. It is a particular
problem in the energy area where we need to rid ourselves of the use of fossil fuels within a
single generation.
This government abandoned the 30 billion investment strategy we put in place for the
public ownership of new energy supplies.
They proceeded instead with the development of large scale private wind farms in the
midlands, in a manner which has deeply damaged public confidence in the energy transition
we need to make. At the same time Sinn Fein are pursuing a policy of opposition to NorthSouth
energy interconnectors, which will do more than anything else to economically divide
the two states on this island.
Public Engagement
Short term political advantage is trumping the long term interests of our people. We have to
go back to our first principles and engage with local communities in order to achieve a
consensus on what must be done, and how we might share ownership of any new energy
supplies.
In May the people of Carlow and Kilkenny will have the chance to consider all of these issues
in a by-election which provides a test for the general election to follow. They will find no
better candidate than Cllr Malcolm Noonan, who has been working on encouraging
community development and engagement for the last fifteen years.
The Environmental Pillar did a good job in inserting a new tier of Public Participation
Networks into the recent reform of local government. If managed properly it will allow local
community and voluntary groups a structured, consultative role in the development of their
local areas.
The major problem is that Government have failed to properly support the initiative. The
staff and budgets are not there to make the whole process work. We will end up paying
massive legal and administrative fees to resolve conflict instead of using this moment of
potential to restore faith in the whole system.
A new public banking model
Planning for a different future is also going to require a new banking model. It must start
with the empowerment of local bank managers, who really know their customers and who
can make a lending decision on an assessment of the person’s character and ability to repay
a loan. We have to end the policy of lending to meet quarterly targets, and remove the
never ending pressure to meet short term profit expectations.
Many Green Party volunteers happen to be small business people. In our daily lives we can
see that the current banking model continues to be fundamentally broken. This is why our
finance spokesperson Cllr Mark Dearey has been working, with a number of party members,
to bring a new public banking model to Ireland.
It is tried and tested in Germany, and we believe it could work here. Engagement with the
Department of Finance in particular has been productive, and further work on establishing
public banking with the assistance the German savings bank foundation is now moving
ahead.
We have the chance of creating a new tier of local banking. Larger than the Credit Unions,
but distributing smaller loans to small businesses which the larger commercial banks find
hard to process.
We envisage the creation of ten regional banks across the country, supported by a
centralised management information system. They would be owned by the local authorities
and would require initial capital of some 100 million euro.
They would be not-for-profit public institutions, yet would be run as a highly professional
banking service. The big gain is that money deposited in one region would only be lent in
that same region. This could change rural Ireland, and I think it is going to take off in a really
big way.
Investing in tourism and a new food economy
One of the areas such banks would invest in is local tourism business.
This month Roisin Garvey, our election candidate for the Clare constituency, was recognised
with a national responsible tourism enterprise award, for the work she and others have
been doing in the Burren Ecotourism network. They are providing a model for the sort of
hospitality that really works. One that is based on an age old desire to share what we
have. And what we have to give is our company, our food and drink and one of the most
beautiful islands in the whole wide earthly world.
The development of that tourism industry would be complemented by the creation of a
whole new local food economy right across the country. Rather than putting all our eggs in
the basket of exporting processed products, where farmers only get a low price for their
produce, we want to create a new distribution system that enables new local farming cooperatives
have direct access to the Irish consumer.
We would start with the building of something like the English Market in Cork in every major
town and city. We would then put the same co-operative distribution system at the heart of
a major new initiative to provide proper meals for our children in their schools.
That last intention is not an impossible pipe dream. It works in other countries. It would
create massive amount of new jobs and if we used local produce it would provide an
invaluable connection between the children and their local land. As a parent it would be a
god send. No more fighting every morning about getting a lunch box together and about
what is inside.
Trevor Sargent started this process by getting every primary school in the country growing
their own food. Now it is time to get them preparing it into a proper meal. An Taisce could
unfurl a proud new green flag. A sign of a well fed school, connected to their local farming
community. Children who are cherished in every way.
A digital and energy revolution
The next lending opportunity would be for every small builder in the country to become part
of a national campaign to retrofit every house and public building and make them energy
efficient. We now have the technology that will allow us to stay warm without the need to
burn fossil fuels. We could take as our model the camphill community in Ballytobin Co Kilkenny
where the community of 130 people are planning to be totally energy neutral by the end of this year.
If they can do this in an amazing voluntary way, then why not the whole country? We could start the
process by committing to put a solar panel on every school roof. Outside the school gate we would
raise a second new green flag to show that the school has a power supply of its own.
When you start looking at how this energy transition is going to happen, you realise that the
management of data and the application of digital communications systems is at the centre
of it all. It is the same across so many different industries. The internet revolution is really
happening. We need to make sure it is a key component in the rebuilding of a new rural as
well as urban Irish economy.
We could aid that process by converting every single post office in the country to be a new
digital communications hub. It could be a place we could safely store our most treasured
photographs and digital archives. Safe in the knowledge that they would be there for our
grandchildren to find, unlike an international network operator who might have gone out of
business or changed their terms and conditions in some dodgy way.
That post office could be the centre of life in every town and village.
Delivering parcels and picking up products to ship to the rest of the world. Using the same
delivery van as a bus to help people get around. The same families have often been running
those post offices for generations. They are trusted in their communities, and such trust is
the vital ingredient if the internet revolution is to move to the next phase.
If Ireland is to be an international centre for digital services, we need to establish
some ethical principles on how we use these social networks.
We need to ensure individual privacy is safeguarded, while at the same time making sure
that as much data as possible is shared in a constructive way.
We need to make sure content creators get paid for their work, but allow for the fair use of
that material in a whole load of creative ways.
We need to protect against abusive behaviour online but be aware of blunt regulations that
may destroy the new freedoms the internet revolution has provided.
A freedom movement from the 1960's
That potential for freedom was set in the late sixties when the basic structures of the new
networks were put in place. It was the same time that the Green movement was born. We
descend from the civil rights, gay rights, feminist and ecological movements of that
time. We are the sons and daughters of that ecumenical, organic, anti-war, small is
beautiful, love is all you need, liberation moment.
For thirty years the tide came in out in the progression in each of those revolutionary
ideas. Our not small job in the political world is try to do what we can to steer the path of
history in this new evolutionary way. To make it happen we need public support.
On May the 22nd this year the Irish people have the chance to be the first nation to stand
up and vote for one such new freedom through the provision of the right to civil marriage
equality. This is not a vote around the complex legal issues that need to be worked out
around advanced human reproduction. I do not believe that allowing fellow men and
women to marry each other will weaken existing marriage vows. But I believe it will make a
real difference to the lives of a whole section of our society, and I believe we all gain from
living in a republic where the rights of every individual is respected in a public way.
Roderic O’Gorman joined the Green Party as a young man because he believed we had an
innate instinct to fight for greater social justice and equality. He has been campaigning on
these issues for years and that experience is invaluable in any referendum campaign. You
learn that this is not a time for any political point scoring or claiming credit for getting things
done. It is time for organisation, rigour and treating the public with respect. We look
forward to the 22nd of May but take nothing for granted. Six weeks is an eternity in a
referendum campaign. Things can turn in the space of a week. We need to get out there
and campaign to get the vote over the line.
Malcolm Noonan has shown a consistent dedication in standing up for equality, even when
it may have cost him votes. It takes bravery to stand up for the rights of a local travelling
community when you are up against a Minister for the Environment and local TD who thinks
that expressing prejudice is a more popular course. We need more people like him who are
willing to say the right thing.
MLA Steven Agnew showed the same steel when he stood up to Sinn Fein and the DUP in
the Northern assembly and pointed out the obvious fact that their budget deals were going
to really hit the poor. He showed what one person can do in a parliamentary
assembly. That commitment to the common good has to be defended at all time, especially
from those who promise to set you free but do the exact opposite in the end.
Last May Steven and Cllr Ross Brown brought Green Party MEP Ska Keller to the wall that
divides two communities in West Belfast. As someone who grew up in the shadow of the
Berlin wall she was shocked that such a physical border between two communities could
exist within our European Union.
It is a shame on all of us and makes me all the prouder that we are an all island party, devoid
of sectarian divide.
We are also close to our fellow green parties in Scotland, England and Wales. It is one of the
other core principles of our party. Our vision is a republic without national borders. We live
in one Green world. The environmental and social challenges we face cross every shore, so
we desperately need a greater international perspective in Dáil Éireann. We need to change
the whole working arrangement of the Oireachtas, so that the members know exactly what
is going on in Brussels as well as further afield. If elected next year we will do everything we
can to make that happen. A true Irish republic must now share our sovereignty with other
nations in a creative new way.
Call for a new volunteer force
For the last four years we have run our party as a voluntary organisation. We know we can
do it. But to deserve a vote from the electorate we are going to have to do a lot of hard
work. We need to build up our volunteer force and that is what I am calling for here today.
We are a political party steeped in a volunteer tradition. We made a point of never taking a
cent from a corporation, a union or from someone outside this state. We don’t have much
money to our name as you can see from the accounts we publish this weekend. So our
biggest task in the next six months is to go out and fundraise to pay for the leaflets and
posters and the office we need to win next spring. That money we have to raise will still be
between one tenth and one hundredth of what other parties have to spend, but we are
going to make it go a lot further.
That situation is difficult but not impossible. Our greatest story over the next year is going
to be showing how people power can work.
If this election is to honour the foundation of our state then it should surely be a battle of
ideas and not advertising spend.
It should be about looking forward rather than back.
We stand for a green island which will being a better economic and social future.
We bring practical solutions to deliver it.
We have no promise other than to try and treat the electorate and our opponents in a
respectful way.
We start tomorrow on our election campaign.