The Green Party is targeting five Dáil seats and doubling their representation on local councils within five years.
The former government partners, who were electorally wiped out at the last general election, claimed they were making a comeback to national politics during an event to mark their 30th birthday.
Party leader Eamon Ryan, the former communications and energy minister in the coalition with Fianna Fáíl, said the Greens were also going back to their campaigning roots.
“We may be down but we are by no means out, and like other green parties in Europe who have suffered at the polls following periods in government, we will use this time to rebuild and come back stronger than ever before,” he vowed.
The party’s new front bench includes former TD Ciarán Cuffe and ex-senator Mark Dearey.
Seamus Sheridan, co-founder of Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, has been appointed agriculture and food spokesman, while deputy leader Catherine Martin, a secondary school teacher, will take up the party’s education brief.
Mr Ryan said the Greens aim to have 20 councillors and five TDs by 2016. The party currently has 11 councillors while all six Green TDs lost their seats in the last general election.
“The Greens are getting back seriously into national politics,” said Mr Ryan.
PA