The Green Party spokesperson on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Pippa Hackett, is cautiously confident that the vote on the Programme for Government will be passed by the party, but admits it “might be tight”.
The outcome of the Green Party vote is likely to be known late on Friday.
Also Read: Green Party votes on Programme for Government: When will the result be known?Across the Green Party’s membership, two-thirds must vote in favour – for the Programme for Government to be passed (a significantly higher threshold than for either Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil).
Speaking about the process of voting, Hackett said that Green Party members had to actually indicate if they wanted to vote in advance, in tandem with an online conference held last week.
The vote (on the Programme for Government) will also encompass Green Party members on both sides of the border. It is believed that around a quarter of the party’s members in Northern Ireland will partake in the vote.
Hackett said she is advocating for a yes vote. She hopes that “many fellow Green Party members will follow suit”.
A very ‘Green’ chapter
When asked specifically about the agricultural section within the Programme for Government, she commented that it is “very green – that whole chapter”.
She added that a shift in the farming model will be seen over the coming years and said that we will see a case of “less nitrogen and more biodiversity”.
She said:
The use of soil strategies and, also, a review of how we use land will be important in the future.
She also stressed the “unique” role that the agricultural sector has to play – in reducing emissions and meeting targets set out by the EU.
“The agricultural sector can address issues surrounding biodiversity and play a big role in helping implement these strategies, whereas the likes of the transport or travel industries may not be as able to implement these measures,” she concluded.