Former Limerick TD resigns from political party over its endorsement of Catherine Connolly

FORMER Green Party TD for Limerick City, Brian Leddin has revealed that he resigned from the party over its backing of Catherine Connolly.

In an opinion piece for the Irish Times, Mr Leddin said the Green Party's decision to support the Independent presidential candidate only deepened his concerns about its current direction.

"The decision of the party to back Catherine Connolly’s presidential election campaign is the latest effort by the leadership to chart a different course. I understand that Roderic O’Gorman believes that the party needs to be competing with Labour, Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats for votes. I don’t disagree, but I believe that it needs to be competing for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil votes – and transfers – too, just as we did successfully in 2019 and 2020."

He added that he thought it was unwise to alienate such a large section of the electorate, just as it is unwise to alienate the membership of the party. Mr Leddin feels the Green Party could have put forward its own candidate despite the "slim" prospects of getting a nomination.

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Mr Leddin said Catherine Connolly "has used her platform to criticise whichever government is in place, but the role of president is not to oppose the Government. If anything, it is to serve the State above politics and to do what the Constitution requires."

"I made my mind up that Connolly was not a suitable candidate as soon as she was proposed because I don’t believe that she will park her deeply held political positions at the gates of Áras an Uachtaráin. Whether it’s her criticisms of the European Union or the US, her repeated equivocation on the causes of the Ukraine war, the preservation of the Triple Lock, or any other cause she has passionately represented, she will have to be silent on them for the most part if she is elected president."

The former Green Party TD continued: "Even setting aside her politics, surely the recent revelation that Connolly employed somebody convicted of very serious firearms offences and signed this person daily into Leinster House, before them being vetted by the gardaí, must be a disqualifier in itself? The employee, according to Éirígí, was a member of Éirígí when she was employed by Connolly in 2018."

Mr Leddin concluded: "As things stand, the Green Party is not one that I would join, and so it no longer makes sense to remain a member. While I have now resigned my membership I remain proud of what the Greens achieved in government and on councils across the country in recent years."

He added that he will be voting for Heather Humphreys to be the country's next president.