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Sinn Féin’s Darren O’Rourke TD: Delivering on the green transition Sinn Féin’s Spokesperson on Environment, Climate, Communications and Transport, Darren O’Rourke TD, speaks with Ciarán Galway, outlining his party’s energy and climate policy, as well as the challenges of constructive opposition. A biomedical scientist by training, O’Rourke just lost out on a place in the Dáil in 2016 when Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty took the third and final seat, before subsequently topping the Meath East poll in 2020. Prior to his election to the Dáil, the Kells native served as a councillor on Meath County Council for the Ashbourne Local Electoral Area between 2014 and 2020. Previously, he had also worked as an advisor to party colleague, Matt Carthy TD, and as a Sinn Féin policy advisor in Leinster House. O’Rourke has been tasked with marking Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan TD. Indicating that he was “very grateful” to take up the role, he acknowledges: “To some degree, it was a step into the unknown. But it is a really
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interesting area and a huge area of change. The thing that immediately strikes me in relation to it is how climate change is an issue of social justice and equality. They are inextricably linked.”
Coherence To date, Sinn Féin’s energy and climate policy has been characterised as incoherent and lacking in detail, relative to its housing and health policies. Naturally, this is a criticism that the party’s environment and climate spokesperson rejects, labelling it an “inaccurate critique”. “My colleague [Senator] Lynn Boylan and I would have had very detailed involvement in the development of the [Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill 2021], bringing forward a range of amendments. We have brought
forward legislation ourselves and our party has a long track record,” he explains. Instancing the work of his predecessor, Brian Stanley TD, O’Rourke highlights the Microgeneration Support Scheme Bill 2017 as an example of this track record. “We still do not have a feed-in tariff and with all due credit to Brian, had that Bill been taken in good faith, amended if necessary, and acted on in 2017, we would now have a microgeneration scheme that is far stronger than what we have,” he asserts.
Community dividend Placing an emphasis on “the need for the State to lead” the green transition, O’Rourke believes that there should be an enhanced role for organisations such as ESB, Coillte, and Bord na Móna, among others.
