This article is from page 19 of the 2007-05-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
GREEN Party leader Trevor Sar- gent was in Ennis this Thursday to lend support to local candidate Brian Meaney, even though it would ap- pear the leader remains at odds with the Clare councillor on the issue of American troops using Shannon Airport.
In March last year, Cllr Meaney didn’t win any popularity contests at the party’s conference in Kilkenny when he declared he was not op- posed to the use of Shannon Airport by American troops.
He said at the time that he was nev-
er in favour of “the coalition of the willing” going into Iraq but believed that the armies must stay to help pre- vent a civil war in the area.
This week, when challenged about the economic importance of the American troops using Shannon Airport, Deputy Sargent said, “the Nazis in Germany would have said the same thing.
“I think you have to have a level of respect for human rights which will underpin a sound economic future, because if you accept a low standard of human rights then it quite simply gives the message of accepting low standards in general.
“Our policy is that fundamentally the law has to be upheld. Our oppo- sition to the way American troops were sent to Iraq was based on the fact that it was an illegal occupation. We insist on high standards overall and we do not accept corporate do- nations,’ he added.
Ironically, it was at the same March 2006 conference that deputy leader Mary White proposed that the Green Party be allowed to receive such do- nations. She was defeated.
Deputy Sargent also said that there was a lot of misunderstanding about the Green Party and asked Clare vot- ers to look anew at its policy.
“Other parties paint us into a pi- geonhole that is not correct,’ he said. “I was at a meeting with Brian (Meaney) in Ennis and many farm- ers were attending and were very in- terested in the whole area of energy crops and the need for diversity in farming. That is why the Green Party is very much at one with farmers.”
“They have been let down by many parties in the past and it is not sur- prising that they are sceptical about anybody in politics, but I ask them to look a fresh at the Green Party be- cause our interests tie in very closely with farmers.”
Sargent said he was hopeful of Green success in Clare and even placed a bet in a local bookies, back- ing Cllr Meaney.