The Green Party will contest the European elections as strong defenders of the EU but also as strong critics of its record on climate change, its market-led policies, increasing militarisation, and subsidising the fossil fuel industry.
The party’s three candidates in the Republic are Councillor Ciarán Cuffe in Dublin; Senator Grace O’Sullivan in South, and Saoirse McHugh, a 28-year old climate change activist from Achill, who is contesting Midlands North West. It calls on the sale of new fossil fuel cars to be banned by 2030 and a European flight tax on airlines. It calls for increased afforestation, protection of marine areas and fish stocks and the ending of deep-sea bottom trawling.In agriculture, the party wants farmers to begin moving away from meat production and also wants pesticides such as glyphosate to be banned.