Greens' strategy:The Green Party will hold a special conference to decide on coalition options after the election, party leader Trevor Sargent said yesterday.
Any such decision would require a two-thirds majority, he said, during a visit to the Galway West constituency.
Reiterating that it would be "too much for party members" to enter coalition with Fianna Fáil, Mr Sargent focused on the record of Minister of State Frank Fahey, standing in Galway West.
Questions remained over Mr Fahey's involvement in the Lost at Sea scheme, currently under investigation by the Ombudsman, and the deal with the Atlantic Dawn supertrawler, among other issues, Mr Sargent said.
"Asking the Green Party to go into office with Fianna Fáil really does not take account of the real world," Mr Sargent said.
The party leader said the Greens badly needed first preferences. He forecast a fight for the last seats in each constituency, "so we are going to need every number one vote we can get.
"If we get enough Green TDs elected, we can bring about what has happened in other countries where the Greens have been in government - as in provision of very good public services in areas like health, education and transport," he said.
The party insists that climate change is still the biggest political challenge facing society and can only be solved through "political climate change". The Greens are still aiming for "eight plus" seats in the general election.
The party's energy spokesman Éamon Ryan said Ireland's climate change targets could not be met without changing the transport system and he pledged that "if you get Greens you will get a decent public transport system. I think that's worth a number one vote".
Speaking in Dublin to reiterate the challenge of climate change, and unveil a banner reading "Climate change - it's time to act", Mr Ryan rejected suggestions that the party's talk of climate change was scaring the electorate.
"We're not frightening people," he insisted. "We're giving people an opportunity. The transport system isn't working . . . What we're saying is yes we'll have a different transport system, which will cut emissions but it will also get people around quicker.
"You can try and change the bus service within a year so that you have a new, properly set out rota of services which connect to Luas, which connect to other light rail systems, which have a regular timetable, where buses have a real priority and not where you have [ as] in the last five years, nothing happening, bus passenger numbers falling. "