Hazel Chu's Seanad bid is a 'bit of a solo run', a Green Party Senator has said.
Senator Pauline O'Reilly says the Dublin Lord Mayor running for a Seanad seat as an independent is "like playing for Kildare and then being the manager of Dublin".
Last night, the Green Party Parliamentary Party voted in favour of a motion calling on Hazel Chu to step aside as party chair while she contests the Seanad elections.
Mayor Chu is running despite the Green Party Executive having decided not to contest the elections in order to support candidates from the other Government parties.
However, prominent Green TDs - including the party's deputy leader Catherine Martin - were among those who signed the nomination papers for Mayor Chu.
Mayor Chu has acknowledged that she has little chance of winning the upcoming by-election.
However, she says she's running because it's vital to increase diversity and gender balance in elections.
The parliamentary party voted to ask Mayor Chu to step aside as chair instead of pushing ahead with a previously proposed no-confidence motion.
Senator O'Reilly was one of those who put forward that confidence vote, and she spoke to Newstalk Breakfast about the recent internal party row.
She said: “You’ll appreciate these meetings are confidential, but it’s obviously out in the public that we did vote in favour of asking the Lord Mayor simply to stand aside for three weeks - not as Lord Mayor or councillor, just as chair of the party.
“I’d really just like to move on from it… but I am delighted to just lay out my perspective."
She said the parliamentary party had made it clear it wasn't politically in the best interests of the party to put forward a Seanad election.
She explained: "We had the support of other parties to win the last by-election for Pippa Hackett… and we felt it was quite clear we would get support in the future.
“[But] you can only actually get one person over the line when you’re in government… there’s a slight quid quo pro kind of arrangement."
Senator O'Reilly said she doesn't think Mayor Chu's Seanad bid is appropriate.
She told Ciara: "The position is as chair of the party you would hold selection conventions in order to give everybody an opportunity to put themselves forward.
“Particularly the three of us as senators… we are all from outside Dublin. There certainly was a feeling that other people didn’t have the same opportunity to put themselves forward. It was a bit of a solo run, to be honest.
“It’s absolutely no problem to put yourself forward as an independent - but it’s like playing for Kildare and then being the manager of Dublin. It’s not really appropriate.”
Following high-profile resignations and internal rows during the Greens' short time in Government, Senator O'Reilly said there’s been “one thing after another” within the party recently.
However, she believes there’s now a need for the Greens to move forward - both for the party and the country.
