Green vows support for fellow Farney native in any leadership bid

The Monaghan woman who has been urged to contest the leadership of the Greens has secured the support of the party's candidate for Cavan-Monaghan in the last election.

In a Twitter post, Tate Donnelly declared his backing for his fellow-Farney native Catherine Martin for the role in a bid to grow the party's support. Under the party's constitution a leadership election must happen within six months of a general election, and nominations have opened this week.

"Catherine is a role model of mine and is one of the main reasons I joined the party," Tate said, adding that she gave him great support when he ran for election.

"Catherine has proven herself over the years, she has been deputy leader since 2011 and has played a huge role in getting the party to where it is today."

'Where the party is today' is at a crossroads. They have secured a record 12 seats in the Dáil and are the king makers in a three way coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. However the party - whose manifesto is very left leaning on issues such as housing - is divided on whether they should even be in discussions with the two traditional heavyweights. Even though she heads up the party's negotiating team, Ms Martin was reportedly one of four TDs to vote against entering government formation talks. Tate Donnelly too believed there was nothing to be gained from entering the negotiations as he believed that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were incapable of leading a "transformative" government.

Ms Martin has not yet confirmed if she will run for the leadership, saying she will give it serious consideration, but that her focus remains on the government formation talks.

By supporting Ms Martin, Mr Donnelly is necessarily calling for Green stalwart Eamon Ryan to stand down as leader. Tate was conciliatory on this point crediting Mr Ryan with playing his part in the recent rise in the party's fortunes, and added:

"However we are now entering a new era and we must look to sustain our growth, and in particular must look to grow in new areas."

He further stressed in subsequent tweets: "I have serious respect for @EamonRyan. He's been great & I'm grateful to him for all he's done."