Good afternoon everyone. I am speaking this afternoon as the party’s Dublin candidate for the European elections in June. For many of us who are facing into the local and the European elections on June 5th, this is a challenging but also an extremely energising time.

I say energising because, as in all times of crisis, opportunities also present themselves. It is up to all of us who care about the future of this country, who are committed to seeing greener and more sustainable policies implemented at local, national and European levels, not to allow ourselves to be daunted by the economic and social challenges we face.

Instead, as the political party which represents the most forward-looking and innovative political thinking in this country and at a European level, the Green Party will lead the way in identifying new opportunities for job-creation, for energy security, for smarter and cleaner transport systems, for a more diversified but productive agricultural sector, for fairer, more community-based healthcare services, and for an educational system that provides young people with necessary skills in a rapidly-changing society and economy.

As a party that has always been a champion of the entrepreneurial approach and thinking ‘outside of the box’, the Green Party will seize the political initiative and create new opportunities where they do not yet exist. If we do this, ultimately I believe, we will see a stronger, healthier, fairer, Irish society, and a more sustainable Irish economy, emerge from the difficult years ahead.

It is my firm belief that the path to recovery for the Irish economy lies to a large extent in a strengthening of the European economy. The liquidity and credit problems faced by the Irish economy are problems we are unlikely to be able to successfully deal with on our own. This is particularly true if the Irish government is to assemble a credible economic stimulus package that will promote recovery in our economy over the coming years.

This is why I am supporting the call of the European Green Party for a ‘Green New Deal’ to be introduced, a European -wide economic stimulus programme that would see 500 billion euros being made available from public and private sources over a period of 5 years, with the aim of creating up to 5 million new jobs across the EU.

These jobs will be in new growth areas such as developing renewable energy sources, building new energy infrastructure including pan- European offshore windfarms and a European grid, energy efficiency and insulation initiatives, eco-construction, research and development, clean technology, the greening of the European chemical industry, and a more sustainable model of European agriculture.

In particular, funding under the Green New Deal would concentrate on assisting Small to Medium Enterprises across the EU to get involved in these new areas of economic activity, and in promoting innovation and competition in the Single Market, and internationally. European financial institutions such as the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and obviously the European Central Bank will need to ensure that new opportunities for advancing credit, loan guarantees and micro-finance opportunities are provided to these SMEs.

I put the proposal for an EU Green New Deal to EU Commissioner for Industry, Mr Gunter Verheugen, when he spoke to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs over a week ago. He pointed out that certain legal and practical obstacles exist at present that limit the EU in bringing forward the kind of economic stimulus package I have described.

These obstacles include the absence of political consensus and political will across Member States. This is why I believe the European elections this June are so important. We need to elect politicians to the European Parliament – an increasingly powerful institution – who have the political vision and commitment to make sure that necessary actions are taken at an EU level to promote economic recovery across all member states.

There is very little point in believing in European solidarity and co-operation in the good times, and then abandoning these strategies in times of international difficulty and uncertainty. There is a danger that an inward-looking nationalism will take hold in these difficult economic times, and that the benefits of collective European-level action will not be recognised.

That said, the looming macro-economic instability in the Eastern European region and the likely social and political unrest that will follow may make European-level intervention unavoidable. But this intervention needs to be timely, and to avoid unnecessary delay.

We do not want to see the European Union falling behind the US in competitive terms over the coming decade because the Obama administration has a “YES WE CAN” attitude to promoting economic recovery through green enterprise and technology, while on the other side of the Atlantic, the EU’s Member States continue to insist “NO WE CANT”.

The international financial crisis we are now experiencing has also made clear the need for new measures such as banking oversight and corporate governance at a multi-national and European level. We must make sure that we elect people to the European Parliament in June who are willing to face up to these challenges, to empower the European Union to respond effectively in order to protect the interests of all of its citizens.

The European Green Party, as the fourth largest party in the Parliament, will use its influence to try to move this agenda forward. If I am fortunate enough to be elected in June, I look forward to working alongside my fellow Green Party MEPs to strengthen the European economy.

The European Union will also have an important role to play in protecting worker’s rights at this time of significant economic downturn in Europe, and into the future. The vast majority of Europeans support the European Social tradition, which values social justice, public services, gender justice, worked and consumer rights, and environmental and health protection.

The debate on the Lisbon Treaty in this country reflected a concern that several recent decisions of European Court of Justice including the Laval and Rueffert cases upheld the fundamental freedoms of businesses in the EU’s Single Market at the expense of hard-won labour agreements achieved by trade unions over the years.

There is an onus now on the European Commission to respond to some of these concerns.The Posting of Workers Directive must be amended to ensure that certain loopholes in the Directive are closed, and that the rights of European workers are properly protected.

The European Globalisation Fund, which was established in the first place to provide support to workers made redundant as a result of trade liberalisation, must now be adjusted to support active labour market measures for EU citizens who lose their jobs during the current economic crisis, measures such as counselling, job-search allowances, new ICT skills and other forms of training,

There many other issues I would like to touch on in my speech before I finish. However, I am limited by time constraints. I will mention just two. The first is the issue of the Lisbon Treaty. As you are aware the government has decided it will put the Lisbon Treaty to the Irish people again by means of referendum before the end of October this year.

In the meantime it is in the process of securing satisfactory legal guarantees from our EU partners relating to particular areas of concern for the Irish people. Our own party members will have an opportunity to indicate whether they wish the party to campaign in support of the Lisbon Treaty when we have another Special Convention later in the year at which they will vote on the issue. For this reason it is important that the legal guarantees secured by the government satisfy you- our party members. For this reason we are liaising closely with our government partners in relation to the content of these guarantees, and negotiations are ongoing at present.

The final issue I will mention today is that of democracy within the EU. Last year’s Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign highlighted the lack of information and growing sense of alienation that many ordinary citizens feel from the EU. This is what is referred to as the “democratic deficit” of the EU. Surveys carried out in Ireland after the referendum showed that over 40% of those who voted No to Lisbon said they did so because they didnt know enough.

And yet a majority of Irish people in surveys carried out since that time say they believe that Ireland’s membership of the EU has been a good thing for the country. It is clearly time for EU insitutions, and for the governments of Member States, to face up to addressing this democratic deficit. This must be a long-term rather than a short-term project. It must involve providing citizens of all ages with relevant and accessible information about the EU.

It must involve consulting with EU citizens to a much greater extent on a wide range of policy and other issues. And it must involve providing EU citizens with more opportunities to participate in european-level decision-making. The availability of modern technology makes these objectives extremely achievable.

I am using web technology in my own European election campaign to try to make it more relevant and accessible to voters – particularly younger voters. The European Greens have been been to the forefront in pushing for reforms to make the EU more democratic and more responsive to the wishes of ordinary citizens. I want to join them in the European Parliament and to make the greater democratisation of the EU a major priority during the next five- year term of the Parliament.

I will finish today by saying that I wish all of our local election candidates every success in the forthcoming elections. I am delighted to see so many bright, able, young (and like myself not so young!) candidates put themselves forward for election in June.

I believe we have demonstrated over the past two years or so that we are up to the challenge of being a party of government. Through very difficult economic and political circumstances, we have not lost sight of the fact that we are in government to see our policies implemented. We have remained focussed when others have tried to distract us and to blame us.

We have proven that we are capable of governing in difficult times as well as good. I believe there is an added value for the country in having the Green Party in government in these times of uncertainty and of change. Now we need to go out and convince voters that if they support Green Party candidates in the European and local elections, they will elect honest, hard-working and capable public representatives to implement a political agenda – the Green agenda- whose time has very definitely come. Go n-eiri linn go leir!

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Press Release by Deirdre