Rebuilding the Green Party
Just over 18 months since becoming Green Party leader, Roderic O’Gorman TD talks to Ciaran Brennan about rebuilding the Green Party, his reflections on governing with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, and Ireland’s political landscape.
O’Gorman took over as leader from Eamon Ryan, who resigned in June 2024 following the local and European elections which saw the Greens fall from 49 councillors to 23 as it lost both of its MEPs.
O’Gorman led the party in the November 2024 general election which saw the Greens fall from 12 Dáil seats to just one: O’Gorman’s. Green Party Senator Malcolm Noonan also managed to retain his Seanad seat.
O’Gorman, who was a serving Cabinet minister when he assumed the party leadership, outlines why he wanted to take charge of the party at such a low ebb: “I felt it was important that the party exited the Government in a way that got as many of our final policy achievements over the line as possible.”
The Green Party has been in a similar position before. In the 2011 election, it was wiped out as a consequence of being a junior coalition party in government with Fianna Fáil which oversaw the 2008 financial crash.
O’Gorman was party chair at this point and says this experience stood to him in 2024: “Challenging and all the elections in 2024 were, they were nothing like 2011 where we had no TDs, no senators, and two county councillors in the whole country.
“We have a TD, we have a senator, and we have 23 excellent councillors,” he continues. “We are in a much stronger position than we were in 2011 but I know how to take the methodical steps to rebuild the party.”
These methodical steps include the publication of a strategic plan in September 2025, and the establishment of an electoral taskforce which is analysing how the party can rebuild. O’Gorman indicates that the 11 other Dáil seats it held in the Dáil term will be a key focus, along with increasing its share of councillors in the 2029 local elections.
“We are in a much stronger position than we were in 2011 but I know how to take the methodical steps to rebuild the party.”
Government
The party’s poor election results can be partly attributed to government failures on housing and health, and backlash from the agricultural sector and rural areas which felt green policies were designed without their best interests in mind.
Analysing the fallout for the Greens, O’Gorman says the party did not spend enough time speaking publicly about its policies and intended aims. He adds that the party should have spent more time pushing against “baseless attacks” of its policies, which he says often came from its coalition partners.
O’Gorman indicates that he aims to address this failure to engage with the electorate. He also intends to address the narrative that the Green Party is urban-centred and does not deliver for rural areas.
“There is a narrative pushed by some of our political opponents that we do not care about rural Ireland,” he says. “I think that is entirely untrue.”
In the previous Dáil, most Green TDs were urban-based and O’Gorman says this may have made it difficult for the party to convey its message in rural areas. He says: “I am Dublin born and bred, it is hard for me to make the case to someone living in a rural townland that the Green Party has the policies for them. They need to be hearing that from a Green member who is rural themselves.”
Asserting that the party was scapegoated by its coalition partners towards the last days of the Government, O’Gorman says the Greens were tasked with defending unpopular decisions around climate, transport, and migration.
However, when asked if he would enter government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael again, after a pause, O’Gorman says: “It would depend. Ultimately for us, despite the bad election results, we got a lot done in those four-and-a-half years.
“You can have the best election results ever from opposition because you have never taken a risk.”
When asked how radical his party is compared to its Green counterparts in Europe, O’Gorman says: “Our party has had the privilege of serving in government twice and when you are a smaller party in government, you have to make compromises.
“Some of our European colleagues have never served in government,” says O’Gorman. “So they have not had to make those compromises that being in government involves but I am in politics to actually implement the policies I talk about.”
Ireland’s political landscape
The temperature of Irish politics has risen significantly in recent years, demonstrated by increasing numbers of physical attacks and online abuse of politicians. O’Gorman has experienced this increasingly volatile climate more than most.
Protestors, brandishing a noose, gathered outside Leinster House to oppose his appointment as Minister for Children due to his sexual orientation. While canvassing ahead of the 2024 general election, O’Gorman was assaulted and verbally abused with a homophobic slur.
Although political violence is not something he worries about day-to-day, O’Gorman insists it is more prominent than when he first entered politics. His primary concern is that this discourages people from getting involved in politics.
“As much as I have to be upfront about the challenges of politics, you also have to remind people that you can achieve really positive changes,” he says. “It is worth rolling up the sleeves and actually getting involved.”
As Minister for Integration, he received regular abuse from far-right conspiracy theorists. In April 2024, masked protestors gathered outside his home, erecting signs and posters featuring anti-immigration messages. O’Gorman outlines his worries about the influence of the far right in Irish political discourse: “The far right is an ideology based around anger, based around rage.
“As long as there have been far-right politics over the last 100 years, I think ultimately they are damaging to countries.”
Opposition
O’Gorman says he is “enjoying being in opposition”. He explains that he was worried opposition would just be about “shouting across the chamber” without achieving anything. “But I was able to get progress on the HPV vaccine campaign,” says O’Gorman.
In January 2026, the Department of Health announced the Laura Brennan HPV Vaccine Catch-Up Programme. Under the initiative, the vaccine to prevent human papillomavirus infection is offered to young people who missed earlier opportunities to do so. O’Gorman had raised the issue on numerous occasions in the Dáil.
“That was something to tell me you are not just going to be the cross guy in the Dáil for five years,” he says.
When asked if the Dáil is a lonely place as the sole Green Party TD, O’Gorman says: “It would be better if there were more of us.
“I would not say it is overly lonely. I chat away to people from other parties as well. Some of them I have known from my county council days, some I would know from my time in government.”
O’Gorman is hopeful that the Green Party will be successful in the upcoming by-elections in Galway West and Dublin Central. The party’s candidates are Dublin City councillor Janet Horner in Dublin Central, and former Galway County councillor Niall Murphy in Galway West.
On the prospect of entering government again, O’Gorman asserts that he would take the opportunity to negotiate with any party in the Dáil, but that “it would have to be on the basis of a strong programme for government”.
Catherine Connolly’s successful campaign with support from an alliance of left-wing parties raised the possibility of a similar coalition forming a government. However, O’Gorman once again states that the Green Party’s involvement would depend on the programme for government in such a coalition “having a very strong element of Green Party policy”.
“There is a lot of policy areas that, with some of the parties that supported Catherine Connolly, that does not exist right now. That is not to say that it could not exist.
“We have seen the same two parties in government for almost two decades. I think change would be good, but it cannot just be change for change’s sake.”
