The Green Party’s Tipperary General Election candidate says Éamonn Ryan has had too many “gaffs” recently.
It comes after the party leader had to apologise for using the n-word while quoting an article in the Dáil yesterday.
The party is continuing with talks to form a government with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.
But Rob O’Donnell has told Tipp FM it’s time for a change in Green Party leadership:
“Éamonn has had a few gaffs in the last year and look, once we have these programme for government talks sorted and we see are we going in or what’s happening there, we are having a leadership election and it is looking like it’ll be contested between himself and Catherine Martin.
“I actually nominated Catherine myself. I think she resonates a lot better with rural voters. We have the right message but we just need to get it through.”
Meanwhile, the local party member also says he took issue with claims by Deputy Mattie McGrath yesterday.
He said that the Greens want to stop people having sheepdogs along with stopping sheep shearing and horse racing, which Rob refutes:
“A lot of that is just untrue. I’d invite Mattie to just sit down with me and look at our policies.
“Saying silly things like we’re against sheep shearing, we’re against sheepdogs, that’s just lies. It’s not true.
“Maybe he’s had conversations with certain environmentalists but whether they’re in the Greens or not, it’s just not true. That’s not what we’re advocating for.
“One thing he did say – we are pro-animal welfare. We are the party with the strongest animal welfare policy, and I don’t apologise for that.”
