FF and Greens hold power in council

Westmeath’s first Green Party county councillors have already made their mark by forming an alliance with Fianna Fáil.

The support of the Green’s councillors, Hazel Smyth and Louise Heavin, means that Fianna Fáil, which won nine seats in the local elections, will hold the balance of power in the council for the next five years.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner at the new council’s AGM on Friday afternoon, the just elected cathaoirleach, Cllr Paddy Hill, said that he and his colleagues are looking forward to working with the Greens.

He said that the rise in support for the Greens across the country showed that people are concerned about environmental issues and that it is up to all parties and local authorities to respond.

“Some of our policies and the Green policies – they might mix and they might not mix – but we will agree to differ on the ones that don’t. We have a kind of a green agenda in the council already, a lot of good work has been done in the environmental section and we hope that will continue.

“I think that by working with the Greens we might be able to do more than having them on the outside looking in. All of us aspire to having a green and a clean countryside.

“We all want to have a good environment, it’s in everybody’s interest and it’s not just a Green agenda alone – all parties are focused on green issues now.

Cllr Hazel Smyth, the first Green Party member elected in the Mullingar area, acknowledged that the Greens and Fianna Fáil “won’t align on everything”, but that there is enough common ground for the partnership to work.

“From speaking to our colleagues in Fianna Fáil we’ve found that they are very concerned about various environmental issues and they have informed us that they are very concerned about making sure that Westmeath does have sustainable development growth goals and that we can work on this collaboratively.”

Cllr Louise Heavin, who was elected as the chairperson of the Strategic Policy Committee on Transport and Planning, also expressed confidence that the partnership with Fianna Fáil will work well.

“We are part of local government now, so it is about working together to try to achieve key objectives. Certainly from my talks with Fianna Fáil councillors, they are concerned about similar things: housing is a big issue, sustainable planning is a big issue at the moment.”

Cllr Heavin also noted that the so-called Green Wave will have an impact on the policies of every political party.

“Because there were so many Green Party councillors elected around the country all parties are looking at improving their green credentials and we are in a good place to educate people about different things that we can achieve collectively.”