You would think that the Green Party should be doing better, attracting more votes than it does. Not just in Ireland, but everywhere. Eamon Ryan and his counterparts across Europe must scratch their heads and wonder: “Why are we not riding the crest of a wave here?”

At a time when the environment is front-page news, you would have thought that it would have a much higher profile.

We obviously see the Green Party better suited to campaigning than legislating. And it is a question members are probably asking themselves too. What is our purpose? What is our role?

Right across Europe, the Greens are barely registering.

In most other European countries support is relatively pitiful, while the broad Green family accounts for around 7% of seats in the European Parliament

In the Netherlands, Germany and Finland, they’ve a maximum 10% of parliamentarian representation.

In most other European countries support is relatively pitiful, while the broad Green family accounts for around 7% of seats in the European Parliament.

This at a time when global warming and all of the big-ticket items which define the Green Party are more relevant than ever.

Not that long ago, if you wanted to discuss recycling, protecting the environment, animal welfare, biodiversity, renewable energy, electric cars and, of course, organic farming, there was only one political party you could say took all the above seriously.

If you wanted to find a politician considered to be most expert about any of the above, you’d flick straight to the Green Party contact list in your phone book.

The other parties wouldn’t have a clue what you were talking about.

Fair enough, in Ireland there is that little matter of the fact that they were in power when the economy collapsed, no doubt that remains fresh in our minds

So here is the question. If we are now changing the way we live in response to the environmental and ecological challenges facing the planet, why doesn’t that also automatically result in a shift to the one party that talked about all of this long before it became fashionable among other mainstream parties?

Fair enough, in Ireland there is that little matter of the fact that they were in power when the economy collapsed, no doubt that remains fresh in our minds.

And I’m sure it also remains very fresh in the minds of Green Party people who opposed coalition with Fianna Fáil too.

Maybe the Greens are just too nice, too middle class, too middle ground? Just ask the SDLP or the Ulster Unionist Party

But the broader answer must lie in their economic policy. Because there isn’t an awful lot else about what the Greens stand for that isn’t to like.

There was a time your typical Irish farmer would have scoffed at the idea that the Greens had any sympathy for farming.

Arguably now, the Greens are made look like contemporary allies for the small farmer in the face of extreme global anti-agriculture sentiment.

Maybe the Greens are just too nice, too middle class, too middle ground? Just ask the SDLP or the Ulster Unionist Party.

Look, the European elections in May might surprise us. Who knows, there might be a Green wave coming. We will see. But if the Green Party doesn’t build on its 50 seats in Brussels, even its own diehard members and candidates will be wondering what exactly it stands for.

Put it in the bin

I am no paragon of virtue. But if I have one pet hate, it is littering.

However, there are many among us who have no problem with it.

I was on a farm in Wexford last week where the equivalent of the contents of a decaying house were dumped and the farmer was left to clean it up.

There should be stricter penalties for those that think it’s fine to litter on other people’s property. It seems that the law is very meek when it comes to prosecution.