The Green Party should in future accept corporate donations, a major internal party review conducted after June's local and European elections has urged.
Up to now the party has rejected business contributions, and funded itself from donations from TDs and MEPs, State allowances and modest membership fees.
However, the still unpublished review, which reflects contributions offered by the party's grassroots, insists that the existing system means that the Greens are "not at the races" electorally.
"Serious fundraising methods must be found. We are looking at appointing a fundraiser, or out-sourcing it," the party chairman, Mr John Gormley, told The Irish Times.
In local and European Parliament elections in June the Greens spent just €49,000. "We just didn't compete in the local elections, but most definitely we did not compete in the European Parliament elections," he declared.
He said Sinn Féin has one less TD than the Greens. "But their back-up is just way ahead in terms of financial resources. You will have to ask them how they are doing it."
The fundraising changes are part of a plan that will be put to the party's membership in January following amendments by the parliamentary party.
Promising "ethical" fund-raising, Mr Gormley said: "We have never gone out and done fundraising. I don't anticipate that this will cause problems."
Meanwhile, the review also recommends that the Greens concentrate resources and fight for just one MEP seat in the 2009 European elections. "If we are to have any chance we will have to throw all of our resources behind one candidate in one constituency," said Mr Gormley.
In the next Dáil election the review proposed that the Greens should seek gains in Galway West, Clare, Cork North Central, Wicklow, Carlow, Dublin South Central, Kildare North, Dublin North Central and Meath.
"We need to promote our existing TDs in order to retain existing seats and councillors in winable seats, with due regard to gender and regional balance," it read.
Meanwhile, the decision to rely on posters featuring GMO tomatoes and Sellafield in the June election instead of promoting candidates is heavily criticised and partly blamed for Ms Patricia McKenna's defeat at the hands of Sinn Féin's Ms Mary Lou McDonald.
In future, the Greens should have a supply of posters in stock so that they can be deployed quickly if the Government calls a "snap" election, the document recommends.
Mr Gormley, who was re-elected as party chair with 80 per cent of the vote last month, said: "If implemented, this will make a significant impact. It is a numbers game. We are very clear about what we are saying here."
The existing system where TDs act as "mentors" for other constituencies must be radically overhauled.
"It isn't working effectively enough. In some cases the local group does not even phone the TD. TDs should be allocated to working closely with adjoining constituency organisations," he said.
TDs currently sign a pledge to pay over 20 per cent of their post-tax income to party funds. In future, changes to such pledges will require the sanction of the National Council.
Local election candidates who failed to get elected in June must be included fully in party training programmes to improve their election chances next time.
The party membership has also expressed a desire to have legal advice available at short notice for future general election counts.
