{"id":262425,"date":"2026-01-01T23:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262425\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T23:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T23:13:11","slug":"jim-ocallaghan-feels-he-needs-to-talk-a-big-game-on-international-protection-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/262425\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Jim O\u2019Callaghan feels he needs to talk a big game\u2019 on international protection \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roderic O\u2019Gorman<\/a> is aiming to rebuild the Green Party<\/a> from a near wipeout within a single D\u00e1il term, with the next big test of that goal coming in this year\u2019s byelections.<\/p>\n

In an interview with the Press Association, Mr O\u2019Gorman assessed the performance of the Government without the Greens, warned the Minister for Justice not to \u201cfool\u201d himself, and set benchmarks for rebuilding his party.<\/p>\n

The November 2024 general election was disastrous for the Greens, as it collapsed fromrecord high D\u00e1il representation to a single seat \u2013 his own.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman is not alone in the Oireachtas, with former minister of State Malcolm Noonan elected to the Seanad in early 2025.<\/p>\n

The near wipeout was reminiscent of 2011, when the Greens lost all their D\u00e1il seats in the election after being in government during the financial crash \u2013 before climbing to a high of 12 seats in 2020.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman <\/p>\n

as set out a \u201cchallenging\u201d objective for the party, saying: \u201cIt took us two terms of the D\u00e1il to rebuild between 2011 and 2020 \u2013 I want to do that in one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman says the party\u2019s recent election performance is \u201ccompletely different\u201d from 2011, stating that palpable \u201cfury\u201d voters had against the post-crash government was not evident on the doorsteps last year.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThere was recognition for some of the big set pieces that we\u2019d achieved during our time in government \u2013 but we\u2019re all worried about number ones. And I think that very much showed on the day. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were behind the Soc Dems, behind Labour in most constituencies. We were never going to pass them out and our transfers helped elect TDs from those two parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman added: \u201cWe\u2019re in an absolute rebuild phase \u2013 and we\u2019ve done this before so we know what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re in such a stronger position than we were in 2011 \u2013 we\u2019ve got a voice in the D\u00e1il and the Seanad, we\u2019ve got some State funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think what\u2019s actually the biggest difference is we\u2019ve got 23 really strong councillors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to assess how the new Coalition is doing, he said the Government has fulfilled all his predictions around being scared of tackling issues, retreating from social policy and watering down climate action.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman accused his old colleagues of \u201ccelebrating the deprioritisation of public transport\u201d and highlighted the postponement of \u201cshovel-ready\u201d projects such as the Finglas Luas and Dart+ South West.<\/p>\n

He said he is also trying to spotlight a rolling back of the ban on fracked gas and concerns over emission reductions, adding: \u201cI am worried that the Government will have moved us from moving towards success to moving back on to the direction of failure again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s very deliberate. It\u2019s very targeted. They know what they\u2019re doing and it seems that they are unbothered by the consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid a shake-up of portfolios, Mr O\u2019Gorman\u2019s old responsibility for international protection accommodation as minister of integration has been moved under Jim O\u2019Callaghan\u2019s remit at the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan has introduced a range of stricter measures around international protection since taking office which he said will reduce the number of applications.<\/p>\n

However, the Green Party leader has warned him to be careful not to \u201cbelieve his own spin\u201d as he said the current Government actually \u201ccaught a break\u201d on international protection numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNumbers decreased by about a third every month from October 2024 to just before the general election \u2013 and I am worried that Jim O\u2019Callaghan is starting to believe his own spin that his measures caused that reduction. They didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman said the Government should be focusing on reforms \u201con the processing side of things\u201d because a future surge will happen due to some unforeseen international crisis.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe\u2019ll experience it less than other countries but we will experience it, and now is the time to reform the accommodation side \u2013 to do what I wasn\u2019t able to do because the numbers were so significant.<\/p>\n

\u201cMove us away from the reliance on the private sector that\u2019s so expensive and where we don\u2019t have control over where they\u2019re located and the actual quality \u2013 and move us to that state model.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman added: \u201cThis opportunity, this slight lull that he\u2019s experiencing now, could disappear very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Callaghan has said the number of international protection applicants coming into Ireland is too high.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman said he recognises there is a challenge, but said that language incorrectly suggests how much control a politician has \u2013 adding that Ireland is \u201cat the mercy of international events\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMinister O\u2019Callaghan feels he needs to talk a big game \u2013 and there\u2019s internal Fianna F\u00e1il politics going on there \u2013 but just don\u2019t fool yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Gorman is now focused on leading the Greens through the party\u2019s new strategic plan for internal reorganisation, addressing fundraising, improving communications and refocusing electoral efforts.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAll the elements of the strategic plan are going well \u2013 and I suppose what we have to do now is demonstrate that in an electoral context.\u201d – PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Roderic O\u2019Gorman is aiming to rebuild the Green Party from a near wipeout within a single D\u00e1il term,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,442,18,13,14,18577,6,19,17,26735,11,12,15,16,19614,5,34887,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-262425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-green-party","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-jim-ocallaghan","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-migrant-crisis","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-roderic-o-gorman","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115822382488717204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}