Complacency among the other political parties with Ireland's apparent economic success was challenged at the Green Party's annual conference at the weekend.
The party's Dublin South East TD, Mr John Gormley, said that Ireland had embraced global capitalism with a vengeance.
"We live in a land of plenty - the only thing in short supply is superlatives to describe how good things are. Those who have the temerity to question this progress are dismissed as cranks or party-poopers. Well, we must be the original party of party-poopers, because we are not afraid to ask the awkward questions.
"If things are so good, why is suicide on the increase? Why is homelessness on the increase? Why is there more family breakdown and a continuing drugs crisis? Why are there hospital waiting lists? Why is there more pollution than ever, with traffic chaos in our cities? Why is there so much corruption in our society and so much despair about politics?"
Mr Gormley said that his two years in the Dail had confirmed the existence of a political mono-culture, and there was now no difference between Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Labour and the Progressive Democrats.
"The Green Party is fundamentally different. We reject globalisation and growth economics. Our vision is coherent, consistent and holistic. We understand that contrary to its claims, global capitalism is the mortal enemy of true democracy and the true market economy."
The gathering was billed as an annual conference, but it was more of a carefully-choreographed launch of the Green Party's European and local election campaigns.
There will be an official launch within the next few weeks, but no opportunity was lost to promote its candidates when about 150 delegates gathered in the function room of the La Touche hotel in Greystones, Co Wicklow, on Saturday. They listened attentively to the various speeches, nobody glancing in the direction of the well-stocked bar in the corner.
When the Greens come together, there is little of the occasional levity one observes at the bigger party conferences.
The party's two MEPs, Ms Patricia McKenna of Dublin and Ms Nuala Ahern of Leinster, and its Munster Euro-candidate, Mr Ben Nutty, were given prominent speaking roles, as was a selection of the local election candidates, who spoke on issues such as housing, transport, waste, childcare, air and water pollution and local government reform.
The party's Dublin North TD, Mr Trevor Sargent, devoted much of his speech to praising the work of the party's councillors throughout the State, noting that Mr Conor Fitzgerald, a member of Tralee Urban Council, is the most westerly elected Green in Europe.
Seventy candidates have been chosen to contest the local elections and another 20 or so will be nominated by the middle of next month. The party is hoping to double its current 12 local authority seats.
The party's national director of elections, Mr Dan Boyle, a member of Cork City Council and a Dail candidate in Cork South Central, said: "We hope to displace the Progressive Democrats as the fourth-largest party in terms of votes and seats."
