The Green Party has been holding its annual conference in Dublin – after losing all but one of its 12 seats in November’s General Election.
Hundreds of Green party members gathered in Castleknock in west Dublin today.
While members have said they are enthusiastic about the party’s future, the focus of today’s meeting has been on rebuilding the party.
Members reflected on what went wrong and how the party lost 11 of its 12 seats.
Party leader Roderic O’Gorman, the only Green TD to retain his seat in November’s election, said that he would not go quietly onto the opposition benches.
The party is focused on rebuilding after being eviscerated in the General Election, but maintains it has a strong record of delivery.
Mr O’Gorman said the Greens brought about significant change in government, but that his coalition partners ran away from change on occasion.
Delegates heard that the party must remember the adage of “try again, fail again and fail better”.
Ahead of the conference, Mr O’Gorman said there was a strong sense for the party to come together and that there was still lots of pride over the Greens’ achievements in government.
Mr O’Gorman said in a statement yesterday that Green issues “are as important as ever”.
“The policies we drove on climate, on transport, on family leave, and on the arts. That is a record we are proud to stand over,” he said.
“The election result hurt, no doubt about it, but we’re resilient, we’ve proved that before, and we’ll do it again. Our issues are not going away, and neither are we.”
He added the party “still has an important role to play in Irish politics” and “the rebuilding begins now”.
