Could the Green Party leadership soon change hands?
Catherine Martin, who has been Deputy Leader of Ireland’s Green Party for the last nine years, has been nominated to run against incumbent leader Eamon Ryan in the party’s upcoming leadership contest.
In a statement issued on Wednesday evening, Dublin Rathdown TD Martin thanked the party members who had nominated her, and said she would give it “serious consideration over the coming number of days.”
Martin is currently leading the Green Party negotiation team with a view to forming a coalition government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Acknowledging this in today’s statement, she said: “In the event of a leadership contest arising, I believe it is important that government formation talks fully conclude uninterrupted and that any leadership campaign happens subsequently.”
She has said that she will continue to focus on those negotiations “while also listening to [our] membership about the future direction of [our] party and [my] role in it.” Nominations for the leadership contest will remain open until 7 June.
— Catherine Martin TD (@cathmartingreen) May 20, 2020
Several elected party officials, including local councillors and Green Party groups (such as Rural Young Greens) have pledged to support Martin should she run against Ryan. Ryan has led the party since 2011.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
