Gormley Quits As Green Party Leader

Former Environment Minister John Gormley is stepping down as leader of the Green Party following his party's decimation in the recent general election.

The Green Party, which was the junior coalition partner with Fianna Fail in the last government, was wiped out losing all six Dail seats which they held.

Mr Gormley sent an email to his party colleagues at the weekend, saying the result had been a "temporary demise" rather than a rejection of what the party stood for.

He indicated that he believed the Green movement needed to reinvent itself.

"This will necessitate a completely new leadership to take over after the internal election dates have been agreed," he said.

"In order to signal this new beginning, I will not be putting my name forward for any position. I will of course be available at all times to ensure a smooth transition to the new party structure.

"The feeling amongst many party members I have spoken to is that we need to get back to our roots as a radical campaigning party.

"While this is the direction in which we will go, we cannot discard the very valuable experience we have gathered in opposition and in government."

Mr Gormley's email comes ahead of a special meeting of the party's national executive next Saturday.

Under Green party rules, a leadership contest must be held within six months of an election.

John Gormley became leader in July 2007, taking over from Trevor Sargent who resigned when the party entered government with Fianna Fail.

Former minister Eamon Ryan and party chairman Senator Dan Boyle are the frontrunners to take over the party.

However a leadership contest is not expected until May at the earliest.

Speaking on Sunday, Dan Boyle refused to be drawn on whether he wanted the job of rebuilding the party saying it was premature to do so.

But he said he was confident the Greens would rebound on re-enter the Dail in future elections.

"It's not a unique experience," he said, "The German Greens, Belgian Greens and Czech Greens have all had similar experiences. It's something of a rite of passage almost for the Green Party in terms of their first experience of parliament, their first experience of government."