Gary Fitzgerald

Gary Fitzgerald is an Irish political activist and former member of the Green Party in Dublin. He was elected as National Co-ordinator of the National Executive of the Green Party but resigned that position and from the Party on the 1st December, 2010 in protest at the deal between Ireland and the I.M.F., E.U. Commission and other countries. He stated the 'onerous terms of the IMF/EU bailout' burdened the country with unsustainable debt repayments, and prevented national recovery.
Notably he led the opposition within his own party to the proposed National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), and made a formal complaint to the Gardai about a sitting cabinet minister of his party's coalition partner Fianna Fáil. He has also secured a victory from the Information Commissioner, Emily O'Reilly which has breached the longstanding secrecy which attaches to cabinet discussion, but was overturned by the High Court.
Originally from Waterford, he graduated with a BA in European Studies from University College Cork in 1995. Following graduation he worked in IT in a variety of private sector firms, from small businesses to multinational corporations (such as IBM, Shell and BP) in Dublin, London and Melbourne.
On returning to Dublin in 2001 he became actively involved in politics by setting up a group campaigning for better public transport (the Campaign for Sensible Transport). In 2002 he quit his IT job, joined the Green Party and became Mary White's campaign manager for the general election.
His roles in the Green Party included:
- working with the Party's MEP in the European Parliament in 2003
- writing the transportation policy for the 2007 general election.
- on the 27th March, 2010 he was elected to the National Executive at the Party Convention.
Cabinet secrecy
Every December the government releases cabinet papers under the "30 year rule". This has been the only way in which cabinet information can be released until the EU Directive on Freedom of Access to Information on Environmental Matters was brought into being. In March 2007 he asked for all records of meetings where climate change was discussed. The Department of an Taoiseach refused on the grounds that the confidentiality of government meetings was protected by the constitution. He appealed this to the Information Commissioner and succeeded there. The decision was appealed to the High Court and a judgment is awaited. The seriousness with which the Government considered the challenge and favourable decision of Emily O'Reilly can be observed from the comments of one of Brian Cowen's top officials, Philip Hamell, the Assistant Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach, who stated "I should make it clear that as far as the Appellant (Department of the Taoiseach) and the Government are concerned, the issues raised in this appeal are obviously of fundamental importance. And it is a matter of the greatest concern that a statutory officer such as the Commissioner should have made a decision which she herself accepts was 'at odds' with an explicit and mandatory provision of Bunreacht na hEireann." The decision of the Information Commissioner states, inter alia "I am conscious that the effect of my decision, as set out below, is at odds with article 28.4.3 of Bunreacht na hÉireann which protects the confidentiality of discussions at meetings of the Government. Mr Fitzgerald has argued that it is a fundamental principle of EU law that "where there is a clash between a directly effective EU measure and a national law, of whatever formulation, the EU measure is supreme". The Department has not pointed to any case law or other material which serves to negative this argument. Neither do my own enquiries and research suggest that Mr Fitzgerald's argument is incorrect".
On the 5th June 2010, the High Court, overturned the decision of the Information Commissioner and refused to allow the documents to be released. Mr. Justice O'Neill refused to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice, as the possibility existed on an appeal to the Supreme Court. The decison has been appealed to the Supreme Court by the Information Commissioner.
National Asset Management Agency
When the National Asset Management Agency was proposed, his local organisation in Dublin Central was one of the four constituencies to require a special delegate conference to be held. On the 12th September, 2009 the Green Party held a Special Delegate Conference in Athlone to discuss their concerns that the National Asset Management Agency (Nama). Gary Fitzgerald was one of the leading critics of the proposal within the Green Party. In a document circulated to members he and James Nix stated “No matter what happens Nama contradicts key Green principles.” The two barristers argued that State participation in banking should be kept at a minimum.
The Green Party delegates voted in favour of NAMA and the re-negotiated Programme for Government.
As an alternative to NAMA in the Green Party preferendum the “Swedish Solution” advocated by Fitzgerald and Nix which received 20-21 per cent approval, which was the second most popular solution behind the so called Green-Nama.
Complaint about Cabinet Minister Willie O'Dea
During the course of the Willie O'Dea affidavit affair, and on the 18th February, 2010, the Green Party activist made a formal complaint to gardaí about the actions of Minister O'Dea.
Gary Fitzgerald made the complaint in the Bridewell Garda Station in Dublin, claiming that the discrepancy between Mr O'Dea's sworn statement to the High Court and the transcript of his earlier remarks to a newspaper reporter indicated that perjury had potentially been committed.
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His comments were recorded in an interview with Irish Independent, on the 18th February, 2010.
He stated that he reported the "potential criminal misconduct" of perjury, and used an analogy of another crime, he said "If your car got stolen, you would go to the garda station and you would report what you consider to be a crime.You may be wrong, it may not be a crime but you would go in and you would report it. They would take a statement and go and investigate it. So I popped in on my lunch break into the Bridewell. I had Willie O'Dea's affidavit and a copy of the article where the transcripts (of his interview) are". He added "They took my statement and they said they would get back to me in due course after they have decided what to do with it, as they have done when my bike got stolen before. We'll see what happens. He should have had the decency, first of all, not to slander a political opponent, and when he did slander and got caught, he should have had the decency to own up..When his party didn't sack him, my party should have had the backbone to force his resignation and we should not have voted in favour of the confidence motion." Criticising his Party's coalition partners he stated "It's not in the Fianna Fail psyche (to resign). If he does resign and my party is responsible for it, it does look a lot better politically than before."
Elections Cabra-Glasnevin 2009
In the 2009 Local Elections Gary Fitzgerald in his first election, obtained 1,035 votes (6.08% or 0.36 of a quota) in the Cabra Glasnevin constituency holding the vote at a similar level to the results for the constituency in 2004, while the national vote of the Green Party fell.

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