Trevor Sargent

The Reverend Trevor Sargent
Sargent in 2006
Minister of State for Food and Horticulture
In office 20 June 2007 – 23 January 2010
Taoiseach	Bertie Ahern Brian Cowen
Preceded by	Brendan Smith
Succeeded by	Ciarán Cuffe
Leader of the Green Party
In office 6 October 2001 – 17 July 2007
Deputy	Mary White
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	John Gormley
Teachta Dála
In office November 1992 – February 2011
Constituency	Dublin North
Personal details
Born	Trevor Anthony Sargent (1960-07-26) 26 July 1960 Ashbourne, County Meath, Ireland
Political party	Green Party
Spouse(s)	Heidi Bedell (m. 1998; div. 2013) Aine Neville (m. 2014)
Alma mater	Church of Ireland College of Education

Trevor Anthony Sargent (born 26 July 1960) is a former Irish Green Party politician who served as Minister of State for Food and Horticulture from 2007 to 2010 and Leader of the Green Party from 2001 to 2007. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin North constituency from 1992 to 2011.

Career

Teaching career

Sargent trained as a primary school teacher in the Church of Ireland College of Education. In 1981, he started teaching in the Model School Dunmanway, County Cork and in 1983 he was appointed Principal of St. George's National School in Balbriggan, County Dublin

Local politics

A committed environmentalist since the early 1980s, Trevor Sargent first became politically active when he joined the Green Party in 1982. However, it was not until 1989 that the Green Party made an impact on national politics, winning its first seat in Dáil Éireann through Roger Garland. In that same year Sargent stood for election to the European Parliament, but was unsuccessful. Two years later in 1991, he was elected to Dublin County Council.

He is well known for waving in the council chamber a cheque received in the post from a builder who was seeking to rezone land for a housing development. When he asked the other members whether any of them had also received cheques, he was assaulted by a number of his fellow councillors. Sargent alleged that Fianna Fáil Councillor Don Lydon put him in a headlock and attempted to snatch the cheque from him. This is one of the incidents which eventually led to the creation of planning tribunals to look into planning matters in Dublin County Council. (See Mahon Tribunal)

Dáil Éireann

At the 1992 general election, he was elected to Dáil Éireann and retained his seat at the 1997, 2002 and 2007 general elections, topping the poll in 2002. Having been elected to Dáil Éireann, he resigned his county council seat in keeping with Green Party policy on dual mandates. This policy has since been adopted by the Government of Ireland and is now compulsory. Having been the only Green Party member of the Dáil between 1992 and 1997, Sargent was joined in 1997 by John Gormley, and in 2002 by an additional four Green Party TDs.

At a special "Leadership Convention" in Kilkenny on 6 October 2001, Sargent was elected the first official leader of the Green Party. He was re-elected to this position in 2003 and again in 2005.

Following the 2007 general election, the Green Party entered talks on forming a coalition government with Fianna Fáil. A programme for government was agreed after over a week of negotiations, which was ratified by 86% by a special conference of the Green Party membership, following passionate endorsements of the deal by Sargent and the rest of the Green leadership. However, Sargent announced that he would resign his position as leader of the party and would not accept a seat in cabinet, as he had promised he would not lead the party into government with Fianna Fáil before the election. He was succeeded as leader by John Gormley. Instead of entering cabinet, he was appointed Minister of State for Food and Horticulture by Bertie Ahern on 20 June 2007.

He served as the Minister of State for Food and Horticulture from June 2007 to February 2010. He resigned as Minister when he admitted unlawfully contacting Gardaí about a criminal case involving a constituent who had been assaulted. He lost his seat at the 2011 general election, along with all the other Green Party TDs.

Post politics

In March 2012, he published his debut book 'Trevor's Kitchen Garden', a week-by-week manual and diary in book form about growing food in a small garden, based on his blog of the same name.

In August 2017, Sargent was ordained a deacon in the Church of Ireland Diocese of Cashel, Ferns & Ossory.

Media

Sargent has made many appearances on the Irish-language TV channel TG4. He was a guest judge on TG4's Feirm Factor and a guest gardener for Season 2 of Garrai Glas in 2011. He also made an appearance on The Podge and Rodge Show on 10 April 2006.

Personal life

Sargent lived in Balbriggan for 30 years. He is a fluent Irish speaker.

In 1998, he married Heidi Bedell, a former councilor, and one-time co-ordinator of the Green Party. They divorced in 2013. Sargent lives with his second wife, Aine Neville, in Tacumshin, County Wexford, where they are developing an organic horticulture enterprise. They are also members of the Wexford Naturalists' field club.

He is the current chairman of the Board of Sonairte, The National Ecology Centre, in Laytown, County Meath, which he helped found in 1987, and is active in GIY Ireland.