Could the Greens themselves not organise this whole letter writing campaign themselves though or facilitate it?

Now I better go eat some non-organic piece of veal for balance things out after agreeing with a Green.

I reckon you need about 500 people living in the one area to individually start moving on the issue. That is why friends and relatives are essential.

Dear ( )

This [Bill] is not going to be put off indefinately. My colleague Ciaran Cuffe, our Justice Spokesperson, is very much involved in working behind the scenes to ensure maximum gains when the bill goes before the Oireachtas. The wording is, I understand, almost finalised. I would assume that any wording will be checked with the Attorney-General before going forward. I have no doubt that the Bill will be brought forward and can then be further amended if required (and if the political will exists to do so). We are not fully happy with what is proposed at present, but are satisfied that it addresses pretty much all of the issues.

On a separate note, although I am not Spokesperson for this area, I do recall that our Leader John Gormley asked members of the Irish Gay and Lesbian Community at a special reception to get active on this issue and put pressure on Fianna Fail in particular. This has not happened.

I think that pressure applied in the right places by Gay and non-Gay voters could have a tremendous effect. With the Green Party you are speaking to the fully converted, but not everyone is of the same mind.

Best wishes,

Paul Gogarty

My message pointed out that the Green Party was fully on board but Fianna Fail representatives were the ones that needed to be convinced.

So far there has been no evidence of a campaign by the Gay community and their friends and families to put pressure on this reactionary conservative grouping.

No point in preaching to the converted and then cursing them for trying to be helpful. We are doing our best. But Government is made up of several parties and FF is the biggest by far.

Call me cynical, but so far the Greens actually seem to be outperforming FF on the amorality scale.

Lastly, be a good chap and read the post I linked to first where the poster named Paul Gogarty as being the dipshit TD that made the moronic comment and the second link where the poster corrected themselves from an earlier posting where they said a Labour TD said this.

Quite frankly, after hearing Sargent attempt to debate in Trinity (for a value of ‘debate’ involving refusal to actually address issues and scare-mongering), I haven’t trusted the Greens an inch. Looks like I was right…