TREVOR SARGENT

The best and most honorable minister in the Dail, and he's just gone and resigned hasn't he!

(pic (C) Green party: of Trevor Sargent and Vandana Shiva)

(as an aside, according to an article by Fintan O Toole in November 2009: in one year as Minister for Justice, Maire Geoghegan Quinn achieved the grand total of 2283 successful mitigations of punishments imposed by the courts. Technically legal then, this was nonetheless morally questionable:

From the piece:

In 1993, in one of the most extraordinary episodes in Irish judicial history, district justice Patrick Brennan, recently retired after long service on the bench in Mayo, felt impelled to take Maire Geoghegan-Quinn to court because she had set aside or changed so many of the sentences he had handed down....Judge Brennan maintained that ... Maire Geoghegan- Quinn was �wrongfully interfering with his judicial decisions and has been herself purporting to administer justice by a kind of parallel system which for all practical purposes provides an alternative to an appeal to the Circuit Court . . . the Constitution never envisaged two systems of justice, one a system of private justice and the other a system of public justice�.

Now she's the pro GM EU Commissioner. And he goes and resigns for tryong to protect a constituent who felt threatened.)

Hoist by his own petard of integrity. Still, I'm sure he'll rise again. See his gardening blog here

Here's a feature I had on him in the Irish examiner recently:

Trevor Sargent's resignation as Minister with responsibility for organic farming means that the organic sector has lost out significantly.

Sargent has been innovative, hard working, committed, supportive and very capable. Whoever replaces him � presuming all the Department's junior ministries stay the same - will have big boots to fill.

From the get go, as a Minister he has achieved for the organic sector: the recent reintroduction of the Organic Farming Scheme and the Grant Aid for the Organic Sector at the previous rates of pay and support was in fact on of the biggest.

This, in times of recession and curtbacks, was literally incredible: under a different Minister, it is highly unlikely that such supports would have been maintained.

He also got the place of organic farming in the Programme for Government strengthened in its recent rewriting.

In general, creating the target of 5% utilisable land area as organic has given both the organic sector and the Department a real focus for organic farmings' growth.

It justified maintaining supports and increasing them where possible: a very worthwhile Organic Action Plan with specific measurable targets was introduced.

Under his Ministry, the following and indeed more occurred: The organic farm walks increased in numbers and professionalism, as did the general availability of research and training; public procurement of organic food was initiated; organic milk quota was freed up; new markets in Continental Europe were accessed, particularity through his and companies attendance at BioFach, the world's largest organic trade show; the organic farming rules were modified to allow partial farm area conversion, primarily to develop the amount of tillage available; Organics with Altitude has been supported for hill farmers considering organics (which I am involved in); the National Organic Awards were introduced.

Organics grew both in numbers producing and in volume produced: this has continued right up to his resignation.

Outside of these sorts of achievements, there was also stylistic innovations: A novel, ground breaking act by Trevor Sargent was his decision to write to every framer in Ireland about the opportunities organic farming held.

In this simple act, he bypassed the traditional power structures at play in farming - both the organisations and media - and spoke directly to farmers. And at lease some farmers responded, as the farm walks had far higher attendances following this letter.

At times, it has seemed that the problem lay with the organic sector itself: here they had a person who believed in, understood and could achieve for organics. And yet, too often, the sector has sat on its hands or mumbled under its breath: sadly, the sector has to a significant extent failed to grasp this opportunity.

At times, it has been puzzling as to whether major players in organics have actually wanted 5% of utilizable land area to be converted to organic. It is a challenging target no doubt, but it is both achievable and more especially worth aiming for.

While in an ideal world, he would have legally compelled errant local authorities to change their behaviour towards farmers' markets, the introduction of a best practice scheme is a definite step up from the previous situation.

From speaking to various political insiders, I know that both his work rate and approachability were quite unique.

It is surely a glitch in the political system that someone performing so well in such a detailed and complex area should feel compelled to resign over something so small. If only there was some kind of yellow card or penalty points system instead.

However, I have a feeling that whatever Trevor Sargent turns his hand to after this, he will achieve with it and for it.