Mr O’Gorman and Ms Hackett took part in a husting for the Green Party leadership in the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College this evening.
Nominations for the leadership closed on Monday, with both candidates securing over the threshold of 50 nominations from within the party.
Approximately 200 party members gathered to listen to speeches and field questions to the two candidates looking to replace Minster Eamon Ryan.
The party’s poor performance in the local and European elections this month, where it secured just 23 seats on local councils, losing 26 and both of its two sitting MEP seats, was a large talking point.
In his opening statement, Mr O’Gorman said: “We lost many dedicated hardworking councillors…our core vote held strong but if we are just going to rely on our core vote, we are going to lose Dáil seats.”
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth vowed that he is “not standing for leader to manage decline”.
“I will not accept defeat. I am standing for leader to hold our seats, to grow our number of seats and to win in every part of Ireland,” he said.
Senator Hackett said the party must be “unapologetically green” and promised as Green Party leader to deliver green jobs across the country, keep public transport costs low and provide “all island connectivity” through an extensive rail network.
On how the party can better support and win back younger voters, Mr O’Gorman said the biggest worry he heard while canvassing was that young people have a “real sense that they will never own a home”.
“People think they are going to rent the rest of their lives and that is a huge concern,” he added.
Ms Hackett said that tax bands must be looked at for younger workers, that the addictive nature and dangers of social media must be addressed, as well as a “zero tolerance approach to gender-based violence” on the streets and in the courts.
On why they should be the next leader of the Green Party, Mr O’Gorman said he has a “good working relationship” with the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and leaders, and has been involved in “high stakes” negotiations, including a tense budget last year.
Ms Hackett said she also has a good relationship with Cabinet leaders and was involved in the programme for government negotiations in 2020, meaning she knows what works and doesn’t work in running a Government.
She said the main pitch of the Green Party to voters in the next general election is to be “unapologetically green” and listen to and meet with the party’s critics and take a few steps back “to the point where the party was aligned with voters”.
“Whether the public drifted away from us or whether we drifted away from the public, we need to figure out. That’s what I’ll do as leader,” she added.
Mr O’Gorman said climate and restoring nature, which are “hardwired into the DNA of the party” will be essential in their next general election.
“But I do think it is important that we speak to the concerns that people bring to us as well because the vast majority of people at the doors are not opening with the climate crisis, they are opening with what is the challenge in their life is right now.
“We need to be able to speak to those issues… they want to vote for people that are on that wavelength with them,” he said.
A second husting will take place online on Sunday, ahead of voting for a new leader which takes place from July 4 to July 7.
The party’s new leader will then be announced on Monday, July 8.
