Ireland's Green Party elects new leader

Minister for Children and Integration Roderic O'Gorman has been elected as the leader of Ireland's Green Party.

It comes after Eamon Ryan announced last month that he was to step down from the position.

Mr Ryan's decision followed the local and European elections, in which the Green Party lost both of its MEP seats.

The party's number of local councillors was also halved.

The current Irish government has been in place since June 2020, when Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party voted to enter a coalition together.

Mr Ryan was the second leader of the coalition to resign this year after former taoiseach (prime minister) Leo Varadkar stepped down as Fine Gael leader in April.

The Green Party confirmed Mr O'Gorman's appointment at a media event in Dublin on Monday morning with outgoing leader Eamon Ryan saying the event was about "passing the torch to a new leader".

Out of an available party electorate of 3,425, a total of 1,896 members voted in the leadership contest.

Mr O'Gorman received 984 votes, while Minister of State and Senator Pippa Hackett received 912.

He will replace Mr Ryan immediately, and, on Monday evening, will attend the weekly pre-cabinet meeting of coalition leaders alongside Taoiseach Simon Harris and Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin.

Mr O'Gorman has been a member of the Green Party for 24 years.

He was elected as TD for Dublin West in February 2020 and appointed as Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth when the coalition government was formed.

Before that, he served on Fingal County Council representing the Castleknock LEA for six years, having been first elected in 2014 and re-elected in the 2019 local elections.

Locally, he led the Yes Equality campaign in Dublin West for the equal marriage referendum and was actively involved in the campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment.

He previously worked as a law lecturer.