The Irish Independent is carrying a story saying that the Green Party have a budget for their Lisbon campaign of just €5,000. They are pleading penury after local and European elections (the same local and European elections every other party also contested remember). And apparently the European Green Party won't give them any money.

By contrast, according to the article, the Liberal group and the EPP are lavishly backing the Fianna Fail and Fine Gael Yes campaigns. Labour is presumably also receiving help from the PES and even the Socialist Party is apparently getting €15,000 from the GUE/NGL. The article is wrong about the extent of the Socialist Party's poster and leaflet campaign though - it isn't largely confined to Dublin at all, but it is confined to the cities and some of the largest towns. Still it must be the first time that they have every
outspent an allegedly mainstream political party - three times the Green budget from their European allies alone.

€5,000? Are these people serious? That would barely cover the cost of a business lunch for some of the astroturf "civil society" groups on the Yes side! Are the Greens actually trying to lose whatever little credibility they have left?

Cash-strapped Greens can only spend €5,000 on Lisbon - Lisbon Treaty, National News - Independent.ie

Cheap leaflets will be placed in TD and Cllr based areas. The rest will be left to rot

€5000?
John O'Donoghue would spill that down his shirt on a night in Chelters

The greens don't accept corporate donations and aren't being funded from a european level so they naturally would have a great deal less than the other parties to spend on the referendum. Also, remember that there could be an election if NAMA falls apart so whatever they've got will need to be spent on getting the TDs re-elected.

Compare them with the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party don't accept corporate donations either, yet according to one media report I saw their budget is eight times that of the Green Party for this campaign. And less than half of that is from the GUE/NGL if the Independent article is correct.

Your post adequately explains why they aren't able to match the spending of Sinn Fein, Labour or the like, let alone the fake "civil society" Yes groups, but being outspent five to one (not counting European money) by the Socialist Party of all people? How can they be taken seriously if the entire amount they are willing or able to spend on Lisbon is a fraction of what one mainstream party local election candidate would spend on trying to become a councillor?

I hate to admit it, but even a million euro worth of posters from the Green Party asking for a Yes vote isn't going to swing anyone.
Better to spend time on canvassing for a yes face-to-face, door-to-door than spending money on posters.

And THAT is where Green Party members are taking Lisbon 2 seriously.

I was canvassed by the Green Party three times during the local election campaign. I'd bet money that I won't be canvassed by them for Lisbon.

The Green Party don't have the activists to be canvassing on a scale big enough to make any impact at all in a national vote, even if they were silly enough to make that their strategy.

You make a good point and I'm afraid I have to admit its a very small amount allright. The best I can guess at is that the war coffers of the green party are still low after the disastrous local elections and that they don't have the funding machine that the Socialist Party have. Joe Higgins may also be a factor - if I remember correctly he only accepts an average industrial wage. The rest of it (or at least a lot) could be being used to fund the SP's no campaign. Speculation on my part - but maybe a SP member could clarify?

Joe Higgins can only give 6 or 7 grand or whatever the legal maximum for one individual is to the Socialist Party. The rest of his excess salary goes on various left wing campaigns - I would guess for instance that he has probably donated to the umbrella No campaign, Vote No to Lisbon. Now admittedly 6 or 7 grand is still more than the whole Green Party Lisbon budget...

Seriously, I can understand the Greens being a bit strapped for cash. Nobody is surprised that they can't match, say, the Labour Party spend. But €5,000 for a government party, a party which supposedly has ambitions to be a mainstream player in national politics, is beyond ridicule. People have spent more than that trying to get a seat on Birr Town Council.

Its a token amount for token effort.

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