The Green Party has dismissed claims by the Taoiseach that Fianna Fáil has been following a green agenda for decades.
In a newspaper interview, Bertie Ahern said Fianna Fáil was green even before the Greens appeared on the scene. He said: "People forget that as far back as 1990, when Ireland had the EU presidency, Charlie Haughey called it the Green presidency. Sure the Greens weren't even there."
Mr Ahern made his comments in an interview with the Irish Independent when he said his first choices for a coalition if the numbers did not stack up with the PDs after the general election were the Labour Party or the Greens.
However, Green Party leader Trevor Sargent said last night Mr Ahern had spent a long time doing nothing for the green agenda. "To say that he was aware of green issues years ago, but that he has done nothing, is an admission of a gross abdication of responsibility.
"If, as he suggests, he has chosen to ignore these pressing issues, while being aware of them, then he is not fit for office."
He said the questions that people must ask of Mr Ahern were what had his governments done to combat climate change and to prepare the economy for the new energy realities of this century.
Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte said yesterday he had "no comment" to make on Mr Ahern's declaration that he would be prepared to cut a deal with Labour.
In the interview, Mr Ahern said despite Mr Rabbitte's antipathy towards Fianna Fáil, he believed most Labour people would be happy to be associated with social aspects of the recent Budget.