MEMBERS of the Green party in west Cork, one of the party's traditional bases, are set to hold a crisis meeting to decide whether to disband the local organisation.

The west Cork group's meeting has been arranged just days after the Donegal Greens decided to break away from the Green Party and go independent. A national meeting of disaffected Greens is to take place in Dublin on Saturday.

The west Cork Green organisation, which covers a large geographical area including Bandon, Kinsale, Clonakilty and Skibbereen, is holding a special meeting in Clonakilty on 24 November that will determine its future.

Speaking to the Sunday Tribune, Green party representative in the area Declan Waugh, said: "We have lost about 35% of our members in the last year and that is very significant. Green Party members feel abandoned by the party leadership and by-passed with the rapid pace of change that is taking place.

"The morale in the local group is as low as it has ever been ... My view is that the more active members would be of the opinion that there is no point in continuing to exist."

"We will be looking at two options at the meeting on 24 November. First of all we will consider abandoning the group completely. Secondly, we will consider continuing on and suffering further resignations.

"To be honest, there is a consensus in the party that disassociating ourselves from the Green Party organisation in the same way that the group in Donegal did last weekend would be a worthless exercise."

Waugh is an environmental consultant who stood for the party in the local elections in June and is vehemently opposed to Nama, citing his belief that Anglo-Irish Bank is not of systemic importance as one of the main reasons for his rejection of the plan.