Unionist and nationalist leaders were today told to get their own house in order first before going to London and Dublin to seek for funds for a power sharing executive.
As he launched his party's Assembly Election manifesto, Alliance Party leader David Ford called on his rivals to focus on the £1 billion in savings which could be made by desegregating Northern Ireland society.
"Initially we believe the £1 billion wasted on segregation could be used to address a number of issues such as reducing the regional rate by the amount that will be raised by water charges.
"Alliance has a set of specific costed commitments and we have identified the savings to be made by ending segregation and re-directing expenditure to priority areas.
"Other parties have simply produced wishlists and are intent on sending the begging bowl to Whitehall and to Leinster House and I am sure Brussels but that is rather demeaning to the people of Northern Ireland."
Mr Ford was reacting to claims from the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists that Chancellor Gordon Brown must come up with the right economic package for a future Stormont Executive as a precondition to devolution.
Northern Ireland's parties have been critical of the Chancellor's initial offer of £50 billion over 10 years in November - claiming it amounted to very little in the way of new money and would not be sufficient to help a power sharing government tackle the infrastructural problems that have developed under direct rule.
During a visit to Omagh, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams today called for greater harmonisation in the farming industries north and south of the Border.
The West Belfast MP launched a rural policy document with fellow MPs Michelle Gildernew and Pat Doherty which demanded a new all-Ireland rural white paper, an all-island animal health strategy, an all-Ireland Food Promotion Agency and the removal of the UK status from food exports.
"We have always articulated the ways in which British agricultural policy is detrimental to Irish farming," he argued. "We led the campaign to have the beef export ban in the Six Counties (Northern Ireland) removed, and opposed plans to concentrate dairy production. We set out proposals to reduce the impact of the EU Nitrates Directive and campaigned against the introduction of GM foods and crops.
"At every level we have pursued the spending of rural development money in rural areas and lobbied intensively to have Peace II money spent. We have consistently challenged the inefficiencies within DARD, including its failure to properly eradicate both TB and Brucellosis.
"We campaigned against the PPS14 proposals on rural planning and warned that the policy would aggravate the rural housing crisis."
Northern Ireland Green Party candidates were joined on the campaign trail by the Republic's Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, travelling in a biofuel powered Volkswagen battlebus running on 100 per cent pure plant oil.
The Dublin North TD detected a growing impatience with the four main parties as he joined South Belfast candidate Brenda Cooke and South Down candidate Ciaran Mussen on the hustings. "I am optimistic," he declared. "There is a surprising number of people who have regard for what the Greens are doing in Northern Ireland.
"They are voters who believe the unionist and nationalist parties have had their chance. People are tired of the same old faces. They want to leave behind Northern Ireland's sectarian past and have Assembly members tackling the issues which matter to them - issues like health, education, water charges, the rates and climate change."