Eamon Ryan has no interest in being Taoiseach but doesn't rule out Tánaiste role

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said that he has no interest in being Taoiseach as part of a rotating position in government. That would become the whole story and that is not what the Green party wants.

“We should be fixating on delivering change” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Sarah McInerney show.

However, he did not rule out being Tánaiste at some stage.

Mr Ryan also refused to be drawn on the exact numbers of Cabinet positions the Green party would want as part of an agreement to form a government. Cabinet posts have not yet been discussed and will only come into play when there is a sense of “getting people working.”

He also said he was not concerned about his party’s leadership. It was part of their rules that the issue would be discussed within six months of a general election. “That’s how we do things, last week Catherine said she was focused on the talks for government formation. That’s the first task.”

Mr Ryan said he and Ms Martin talk every day and had in the past discussed the leadership issue. If she were to become leader of the party, he would work with her, he said. He had not been aware of the letter circulated by some Green party councillors last week. “But that’s not something that threw me.”

However, Mr Ryan admitted that he was not certain he would run in the next election as his younger daughter in particular did not want him to do so. It was something he would have to evaluate. No one person in the party was indispensable, it was a team game.

“Thirty years is a long time in politics.”

The decision of who will be Attorney General had not been discussed at all within the party, he said, responding to media reports. “Some of the stuff put out there is not factually correct.” Whoever will be Attorney General needs to be a really good lawyer for the government, he said. Mr Ryan pointed out that there had been some “very political” Attorneys General in the past who had been very good in the role.

When asked about Fine Gael having discussions with Independent TD for Wexford Verona Murphy who was previously a nominee for the party, Mr Ryan said that he was prepared to talk to everyone “if we’re going to win over the country to turn green.”

He disagreed with the comments of Ms Murphy on refugees and thought that using refuges as an election issue had not been right.

On the issue of the Pandemic Payment, Mr Ryan said that the Green Party wanted to see the introduction of a basic income payment which offered better social protection and allowed people to work at the same time.

The Pandemic Payment had not been well thought out and it had its flaws, but it was an emergency measure. “The current plans will taper off, it will be adjusted. There will have to be changes.”

Mr Ryan said he would like to see lessons learned from the approach taken during the current crisis.

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