Déirdre de Búrca has announced that she has resigned from the Green Party and Seanad Éireann with immediate effect.In a letter of resignation to Green Party leader John Gormley, Ms de Búrca says she 'can no longer support the Green Party in government, as I believe that we have gradually abandoned our political values and our integrity and in many respects have become no more than an extension of the Fianna Fáil party'.
She claims Fianna Fáil is 'running rings' around the Green Party and continues to take advantage of its inexperience, reporst RTE. In the letter she says the Green Party has been 'paralysed' by the rejection of several candidates in the local and European elections last year.
Ms de Búrca stood in the European parliament elections in the Dublin constituency but failed in her bid to get elected.
In the letter Ms de Búrca says she has lost confidence in Mr Gormley. She adds that in his role as leader, he has done a disservice to the party and its members by allowing a 'drift' to occur.
A spokesman for Mr Gormley described Ms de Búrca's decision as disappointing.
He said Green parliamentary party members would meet during the morning to consider the development and the party will respond in due course.
Letter of Resignation from Senator de Búrca to Party Leader John Gormley February 12, 2010
Dear John, I am writing to inform you of my intention to resign from the Green Party Parliamentary Party and from Seanad Eireann with immediate effect. It is with great sadness that I tender my resignation, having served as an elected member of the Green Party for eight years on Wicklow County Council and for a further two and a half years as a member of Seanad Eireann. During that time I have worked faithfully on behalf of the party to try to advance its political agenda in order to put this country on a more sustainable path. I regret to say that I can no longer support the Green Party in government, as I believe that we have gradually abandoned our political values and our integrity and in many respects have become no more than an extension of the Fianna Fail party. I have had a number of conversations with you as Party Leader over many months now about my growing discomfort with the decisions that the Green Party has been supporting in government. You have been very aware of my frustration with the fact that despite the Green Party holding the balance of power in this government for some time now, our willingness to try to exercise that influence appears to grow less with every passing week. As a party, we seem to have been paralysed by the electorate's rejection of many of our candidates (including myself) in the local and European elections last June. Any suggestion that we challenge Fianna Fail, or face it down over important issues, seems to bring up a great fear in us that we will have to leave government. In fact staying in government appears to have become an end in itself now for the Green Party. While I was always aware that our political inexperience as a party would leave us vulnerable to being manipulated by Fianna Fail in government, what I hadn't predicted was the strong attachment to office that appears to have developed since we became part of government. It is with regret also that I must also inform you that I have lost confidence in you as Party Leader. The Parliamentary Party has had almost daily meetings now since well before Christmas at which we have discussed the very real problems we are experiencing in getting Fianna Fail to co-operate with us in implementing policy initiatives that were agreed as part of the original, and the revised Programme for Government. From stonewalling us and trying to unravel key aspects of our policy initiatives being implemented, to ignoring our input into the preparation of new legislation, to reneging on two key agreements made between Party Leaders, the Fianna Fail Party continues to 'run rings' around us and to take advantage of our inexperience and our very obvious fear of facing the electorate. Despite the fact that you have been asked on many occasions over the past few months by the Parliamentary Party to take a stronger line with Brian Cowen and the Fianna Fail party in relation to certain core issues, you have clearly been unable, or unwilling to do so. Unfortunately the effect of this unwillingness to act is that the Green Party has been slowly haemhorraging support because of a growing public perception that we have lost the courage of our convictions and have become no more than an obedient 'add-on' to Fianna Fail. For example, I am aware that you as Minister have a key report in front of you from Dr Niamh Brennan on the issue of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. I'm afraid I lack the confidence that the findings of this report will be acted on in the timely and appropriate manner that the public interest requires. I believe that in your role as Party Leader you have done a disservice to the Green Party and to its members in allowing this 'drift' to occur. It would appear that holding onto office and to seats have become more important to the party than holding on to its fundamental political purpose. We have lost our way as a party and I am sad to say that it has reached a point where I, and most of the people I know, will be unable to vote Green in the next election. I don't take this decision to tender my resignation lightly. I am very clear however that I do not want to be part of what the Green Party is continuing to support in Government.
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