Eamon Ryan confirms the Green Party would be open to going into Government with Sinn Féin after next election

THE Greens could go into Government with Sinn Féin after the next election — as long as that party focuses on the environment, Eamon Ryan has said.

Asked would be prop up Mary Lou McDonald’s movement in office, the Green Party leader confirmed on RTÉ Radio 1 that he was prepared to do so.

“I've always said that the scale and the urgency of change needed on the environmental side means that we can't sit back and wait for the ideal partners (in Coalition),” Mr Ryan said on This Week.

“I believe every party, every political viewpoint, has to be part of this change. So yes, we will work with all parties to make it happen,” Mr Ryan said.

“But Sinn Féin also have to change. They have to start taking the environmental agenda seriously, and show the ambition and the scale of response, and the funding and the resources that need to go with that in their policy approach.

“So we would enter any such negotiations with absolutely honest respect to all parties, respecting their mandate, but also holding a line.

“And that’s really we do need to move, we can’t delay now. You can't put off the environment. You can't put it down as some kind of nice tick-box greenwashing option.

“It has to be real,” he told interview Carole Coleman in what is believed to be the first explicit confirmation that the Greens would be prepared to share Government with Sinn Féin.