I'm just an ordinary Green Party member, but I've read the PfG and listened to all the speeches, and now I've made up my mind.

I'm voting against it

#GPSC2020

This deal isn’t good enough, and if we pass it we’ll be externalising its costs onto the backs of those who can least bear them. I think the negotiation team did a great job, but it is false to call it transformative. #GPSC2020

It’s a continuation of the last 9 years, with some impressive green wins precariously tacked on the side. That if we sign up to this deal we will be destroyed. The question we must ask is: is this deal worth falling on our swords for? #GPSC2020

If we could believe that it’d be implemented in full, I’d probably vote yes. Those in favour have pointed out this document is aspirational so even if we could trust FFFG to act in good faith, it would be naive to think we will get everything we’re being sold #GPSC2020

it’s clear that we can’t trust FFFG to act in good faith. Add to that the addition of independents who will undermine our leverage. Working with some of the more odious INDs is a red line for some of us. #GPSC2020

Uncertainty around the attorney general is another reason to discount the fraction of this PfG which we can expect to see materialize. We’ve been told that we can withdraw if things aren’t going our way, or if austerity returns. But I fear inertia will keep us in there. #GPSC2020

The last PfG promised 35k social housing units but delivered 24k, it promised to work to end homelessness but delivered an increase from 4k to 10k homeless people. Is this the kind of implementation success we can expect this time round? #GPSC2020

This time we’re promised 50,000 social housing units (less than in the FG manifesto). How many can we expect to materialise? How many people can we expect on the street in 5 years’ time, especially facing into a recession? How many homeless people are acceptable to a GP in govt?

The PfG can be summed up by 2 of our housing policies: 1 made it & 1 didn’t. We won a retrofitting programme but lost our policy to tighten minimum BER standards in rentals. Homeowners get a cosier home & save on bills. Those renting still pay a fortune for your damp apartment.

With the noble exception of direct provision, the only wins are climate related. When I joined in 2014, I made sure I wasn’t joining a single-issue party, but if we pass this deal we are a single issue party in practice, if not in theory. #GPSC2020

This is the worst PfG of any possible Government that would involve the GP. I understand that most people believe next most probable govt wouldn’t include us. But this is not a given, and the green party is not a passive actor. #GPSC2020

Given the unstable nature of any govt that doesn’t include us, even if we do end up in opposition (where we could achieve more than is claimed) it would probably only be for a short time. I believe SF-FF-SD-GP only marginally less likely than FFFGIND. #GPSC2020

Mary Harney famously said that your worst day in government is better than your best day in government, but PDs were the most successful small party in Irish history – they filled the ideological vacuum of FF and had their programme implemented. #GPSC2020

FG have no such ideological vacuum, the PfG is proof of that – a FG document through and through, with some Green wins precariously tacked on. And that’s why I’m voting no #GPSC2020