Press release

The Green Party Northern Ireland (GPNI) has a new deputy leader. Lesley Veronica will be replacing former deputy leader, now leader of the Green Party, Cllr Mal O’Hara.

It is a great honour to be selected by the Green Party for the role of deputy leader. I have a superb mentor in Mal O’ Hara, who in his time as deputy leader worked tirelessly with Clare Bailey to reinvigorate the party and lead us to record council election success. I am excited to have this opportunity to work with Mal and the wider party membership and see us build on the policy successes we have already had at both council and Assembly.

There is much work to be done but our core principles are our strength. We want social justice, sustainability, grassroots democracy, and peace. These are the right principles at the right time.

Northern Ireland is facing a hard winter with a cost-of-living crisis projected to put 73% of households into fuel poverty. We have unprecedented numbers of people dying on our streets because of drug dependency. Health and social care waiting lists in NI continue to grow. The backdrop for all of this is a climate crisis which will be the first thing to be side-lined by other parties as the squeeze for resources grows. We have the policies, based on sound principles to address these issues.