![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/EPIgjwaWAAACsoA-1024x556.jpg\")
The Green Party has launched its General Election manifesto, proposing to \u201cmake Ireland a better, fairer place to live\u201d.<\/p>\nThe Green Party has launched its General Election manifesto, proposing to \u201cmake Ireland a better, fairer place to live\u201d.<\/p>\n
The manifesto \u2013 entitled Towards 2030, A Decade Of Change \u2013 concentrates heavily on the climate, public transport and young people.<\/p>\n
In it, the party states: \u201cWe need to rethink how we live, how we travel, how we work and how we consume.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, the Green Party, have a special role to play in this decade of change, because we have spent 40 years thinking about how we can protect the environment while simultaneously advancing social justice, nurturing our economy and building our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among the key pledges outlined in the manifesto, the party vows to:<\/p>\n
The party also vows to spend 50 billion euro on retrofitting homes over the next 20 years, which it says is necessary to wind down the use of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
A Universal Basic Income payment to all citizens without means-testing, lowering the voting age, and a referendum on housing are also laid out as policy objectives.<\/p>\n
The party has enjoyed election successes over the last year and is tipped by pollsters to continue the trend of the \u201cGreen wave\u201d currently sweeping across Europe.<\/p>\n
The party has recently worked hard to counter the idea that its policies will be harmful to rural Ireland and farmers, and the issue was highlighted by leader Eamon Ryan again on on Saturday.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThe fallacy that this is not going to be good for rural Ireland has to stop because I think people in rural Ireland want to be part of this, and have as much sense as anyone else that they have a role to play, and we have a role to play by listening and realizing it has to come from the bottom up.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also criticized rival parties who were promising \u201chandouts\u201d in their manifestos, adding the Greens cannot guarantee tax cuts, and he said forming the next government is likely to be a long and complicated process.<\/p>\n
Fine Gael and Fianna F\u00e1il have both signaled they would look to the Green Party in the likely event that they do not win a majority.<\/p>\n
Mr Ryan said: \u201cI think the bigger picture is what is the strategic direction we want to take the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the exact figures, it\u2019s the policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe disagreements with other parties on climate and domestic issues isn\u2019t just on the figure but it\u2019s the big policy issues that need to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n